Teachers from across America discussed the latest trends and challenges they continue to face as they seek to prepare their students for an ever changing world during the 2026 Smithsonian National Education Summit in Washington, D.C. Dr. Monique M. Chism, the Smithsonian’s undersecretary for education, said educators must use words and employ strategies with care if their goal is to prepare students for the kinds of unchartered waters that lie ahead. “Words can serve as life rafts that can carry us – teachers and students – over rough waters, which we will all inevitably face,” Chism said. It’s our responsibility to prepare our students for the time when they will enter the world and seek to both claim their places and assert their voices.” Leon Smith, 46, a social studies teacher at Haverford High School in Havertown, Pa., served as the keynote speaker for the three-day conference.