This piece was published about our district’s Board this week. I particularly like this section:
Mike Schiers, who generally represents the Frederick High School feeder system on the school board, said the district needs to make teaching its top priority.
“Our focus has changed from teaching to following up on the requirements,” Schiers said.
In any regulated industry, compliance with the regulations takes over all functions, Creighton said.
Today, I read this from The Daily Papert:
The very nature of a curriculum requires subordinating individual initiative to the Great Plan. Schools can see no way to make it work other than by exactly the methods and principles that have now been discredited in the Soviet system. All over the world, more and more people are recognizing that these principles do not work in economics. I think that more and more people are also beginning to see that they will not work in education either. These principles fail in the two cases ultimately for exactly the same reason: They hamper individual initiative, and deprive the system of the flexibility to adapt to local situations.
I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this kind of intersection of theory and practice. I also remain hopeful as to the Board’s new direction.