Yaaay!
The CTU has decided to go back to work.
Basically, the fight was not over what’s good for the students, but a head butting contest between a sperm whale and Gollum over which agency is going to assume central control.
As usual, the taxpayer is the loser. And that was always going to be the case- the school district is heavily in the red, and this just makes that worse. None of this will change- none of it CAN change- until the educational system is replaced with something that works. I expect the internet will eventually take over educating our children, for several reasons:
1: It’s everywhere.
2: It has all the information at it’s disposal
3: It can be monitored by individuals. You might have a bit more control over what content your child is being subjected to, and frankly, in the public school system that’s a crapshoot at best.
This can’t happen, won’t happen, until the public school system is replaced by force, or it collapses under it’s own weight. If this happens, it will take generations of children down with it.
I expect the best possible solution would be for the rural communities to begin this process, to “Share” teachers and educators among districts, and get kids an education possibly better than they would otherwise; to stealthily take the educational system out of the hands of government before they know it’s gone.
This is already starting here in Idaho. Thanks to reforms at the state level (which the teacher’s unions are still trying to get repealed with not much success) and a very expansive view of what charter schools can accomplish, parents can choose virtual schools for their kids. There’s two K-12 virtual schools available and one virtual high school.
I’ve looked at the curriculums, the requirements for the kids, and the expectations are much more stringent at the virtual charter schools. There’s also much more flexibility in how the kids are taught and much more allowing for the individual needs of the kids. The virtual schools attempt to (and accomplish) meeting the needs of the smaller educational groups, the gifted and those with learning disabilities (and there’s a considerable overlap between these two groups).
The virtual high school is being sold as “you choose when you take classes and you choose how fast you advance” to the kids. That sounds bad, until you look at how they accomplish this: the kids are required to take a stringent core curriculum and only pass if they can get their work done by the assigned deadlines. Part of their grades are based on online discussions moderated by the teachers (just like a forum actually) and instead of the tests that are used in standard high schools they use a lot of written reports and projects to demonstrate knowledge of the material. So the kids are allowed to determine their own schedule as long as they meet deadlines and participate fully.
So if Idaho is anything to go off of, the internet may very well revolutionize public education. The internet (and digitalization as a whole) allow for vast improvements in individualized education and a chance to teach kids to be responsible for their own education instead of just sitting in a classroom every day.
Have a listen at this link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html
Actually teaching your kids WITHOUT computers is the most effective way. The kids need personal interaction.
Homeschool in a word.
The link above shows differently. Still, interaction is a good thing; the point is finding the balance.
Homeschooling, like it or not, is impossible for most people on the planet.