OAKLAND -- Get relevancy into lesson plans and catch up with the digital age.

So said an internationally recognized educator Tuesday to more than 600 teachers and administrators from four local school systems -- School Administrative District 47, School Union 52, Waterville and SAD 49 -- at Messalonskee High School.

"Our schools have become museums," said Willard Daggett, president of the International Center for Leadership in Education, "and purely unintentionally, we have become curators."

Daggett argued that public educators have failed to update their teaching methods to appeal to the modern child who collects information digitally.

Instead, he said, too many teachers stick with the same instructional approaches used when they were schoolchildren. As a result, many students have tuned out, he said.

Rigor and relevancy have to go hand and hand, he said, if teachers are to prepare students to successfully meet the greater demands of the 21st-century economy.

Today's economy, Daggett argued, is changing constantly and demands people who are able to adapt their know-how and skills to that dynamic situation.

"Our kids don't know what to do when they don't know what to do," he said.

America, he argued, is losing ground economically to other countries -- namely China and India -- as a result of this failure to adapt -- a flaw that could lead the United States to be the latest has-been empire, he said.

Winslow High School social studies teacher Mark Pelletier, who teaches advance placement economics, disagreed with Daggett's warnings that China, India and other countries with rapidly growing economies may soon overtake America.

He also didn't see Daggett's thoughts on relevance in education as anything revolutionary.

"Most of these philosophies have been around for a while," he said, "but I think the level of awareness has been raised (by Daggett's presentations). Sometimes (as teachers) you need a reminder of what we are all here for."

Daggett also tempered his criticism of public education with heartfelt praise for what American educators do right.

One of the crowning achievements of public educators, he said, was exemplified by the help his autistic, mentally-disabled daughter received to use the bathroom without assistance by the time she was a preteen.

Lawrence High School science teacher Eric Brown said he enjoyed the inspirational stories Daggett told, especially those drawn from his family.

"We are going into school pumped up," Brown said. "It was almost like a pep rally."

The event was sponsored by the Maine Department of Education.