Dangling Dramatic Education Innovation To Win Stimulus Funds

by Mike Smith · 2009-09-01 06:15:00 UTC
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Superintendent of Michigan district schools Mike Flanagan has asked schools to dramatically rethink the way that children are educated. Having received proposals, Flanagan is going to choose the best and hope the innovation boosts the state's chance of winning stimulus funds. Jim Gibbons, president of the Oxford Education Association, explained to the AP that "it's an exciting time because we're breaking traditional wisdom with the approach we're taking. We're investing in our schools."

Some of the proposals range from giving every student a laptop and using social networking to attempts to make students better candidates for college by teaching them foreign languages from kindergarten age. The most intriguing and potentially controversial plan involves replacing grade levels with a level based on ability, rather than age. That'd certainly be innovative, but you've got to wonder about issues of socialization and how important it is for kids to grow up with friends their own age.

What's your BIG idea for dramatically changing education?

[Photo credit: McMann]

Mike Smith is associate editor at Change.org.
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