No money? No problem, a wave or wiggle of a magic mouse and the problem is solved!
The Washington Post reports on the National Summit on Education Reform, an annual convention hosted by former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Bush is not alone in this effort.
The meme of Western Governors University is that they will TRAIN the teachers who will administer this new magic .. high school teachers with no need to know much of anything about literature or physics certainly can mentor kids on how to use software and then proctor the standardized exams!
I fear that a bipartisan crew of Republicans wanting to cut the size of government and Democrats who insist that all kids can learn, will put (poor) students into classes with teachers who have no content expertise and let computers fill the gap! Of course that same crew, Republicans and Democrats alike, will send THEIR kids to private schools.
The most disturbing part of this meeting is well summarized in the remarks of Jeb Bush to MSNBC Wednesday:
“We hope to get to a point where digital learning becomes a non-political issue, becomes the core way that we educate children. It’s not ideological. It’s really focused on customizing learning towards children and away from the systemic elements where the adults dominate education.”
W. Va.’s former Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and cochair, with Jeb Bush of the Digital Learning Council , argued that students will learn at their own pace through the power of digital learning:
“One major state for instance has 440 high schools and only 88 certified physics teacher(s0. We are not going to be able to get a certified physics teacher in every one of those other high schools. But what we can do through technology is bring in high quality physics content. We combine that with an effective teacher in the classroom to truly get the maximum student outcome.”
Ed, this should frighten every parent with kids in the public schools. The idea that we have great or even adequate courseware for high school physics is only likley to be valid if we dumb down the standards to a very, very low level.
Who suffers from this vision of futuristic education? the poor, especially the gifted amongst the poor who will never have the chance to exercise their gifts.