Blogging and Education

by philg

One of the panels at BloggerCon concerned blogs and education, mostly for full-time K-12 and college students.  Whenever people talk about education it seems inevitable that debates will break out concerning what to do about public schools: “Why shouldn’t a kid in the ghetto have the option [vouchers] of attending private school, the same as George Bush’s and Bill Clinton’s children?” and “I worked in the U.S. Air Force for four years before moving to the San Francisco Public Schools and let me tell you that, for a government agency, schools are remarkably efficient.”

4 thoughts on “Blogging and Education”

  1. This debate can be boiled down pretty quickly:

    Would the private schools willing and able to provide equal access to all students; i.e., need-blind admission by lottery and financial aid for all students who need it (in excess of the vouchers)?

    Would the private schools provide the same level of special ed. services that public schools are required to by law?

    Would private schools accept limits on who they expel and under what circumstances?

    In 2003, voucher funding would also probably have to be tied to No Child Left Behind-style ratings, which would inevitably show that scores in every private school in America were declining dramatically (due to an influx of low-achieving students), which would trigger cuts in funding, state-takeover, etc. I just threw that one in as a reminder of how NCLB works.

    I’m not saying private schools are bad if they don’t do the above, but if they can’t do those things, vouchers can’t really solve the problems we face.

  2. hmm, you switched from blogs for educational purposes to public schools to goverment employee schools! we addressed the first topic in 11.124 at the beginning of the year. we discussed some of the sites devoted to educational blogs, including http://www.schoolblogs.com/ . on its website it mentions “Every teaching college in the world extols the virtues of providing students with an audience.” i guess that is one reason for educational blogs. another page with some educational blog listing at the bottom is available here: http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=XR3MPPUOMIPUMQSNDBCSKHSCJUMEIJVN?articleID=12803462 .
    as far as government employee schools, i saw a program on tv about that once. they proposed that those schools worked so well because of parent involvement. parents were allowed into the classrooms to watch and help their kids. they even received time off from their government jobs to do so.

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