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Posts published in “Day: January 14, 2011”

A useful direction, cautiously

A few thoughts about the new public schools proposal in Idaho by Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, why Washington and Oregon may want to give serious consideration to parts of it, and why Idahoans might be cautious about some other parts.

Much of the base of it, and much of the best of it, actually track with a theme of returning Oregon Governor John Kithaber: To think in terms not of the existing structure, but in terms of what ought to be accomplished. Students in public (and generally in private as well) schools mostly are taught in ways not so different from those used a century and more ago, with often-outdated textbooks and materials, in a day when information technology makes so much more possible. So if you forget about the way the job has been done and instead think in terms of educated students, and how they might best be educated, you may come up with something a lot different.

Here's the centerpiece of the Otter/Luna (mainly Luna, with Otter support) proposal. (more…)