Friday, January 28, 2011
Education Musings
Take a gander over at Liberty Postings - Sarah Moore's blog - to see what she thought of the State of the Union as it relates to education.
I agree with Sarah on all points but the importance of engineering and science education. While a liberal arts education is good for some things, when it comes to solving actual problems - like energy sources after fossil fuels are depleted - it is engineers and scientists that will lead the way, not lawyers, authors, historians, etc. But, as Sarah notes, Presidents have been saying this for decades. No progress has been realized, and, given this President's track record, I can't foresee any over his reign.
Locally, I am interested to see what happens to Fort Craig Elementary, the flagship year round school in Maryville. Due to a focus on the high school and the need to open a modern intermediate school and the costs that go with such changes, the Maryville School Board is seriously considering closing Fort Craig. It appears to be a bizarre move on the School Board's part to me, as somehow closing your best school will improve the educational benefit to the city as a whole, particularly when one takes into account that the savings of closing Fort Craig will only meet about half of the need to open the new intermediate school. Given the pride that Maryville natives have in their school system, saving a buck doesn't exactly seem to fit with the community values here.
From my standpoint, I moved away from an average school system so that my boys would be educated in one that was excellent. I obviously hope that move was not a mistake on this front, and these proposed changes are not positive in that regard.
I agree with Sarah on all points but the importance of engineering and science education. While a liberal arts education is good for some things, when it comes to solving actual problems - like energy sources after fossil fuels are depleted - it is engineers and scientists that will lead the way, not lawyers, authors, historians, etc. But, as Sarah notes, Presidents have been saying this for decades. No progress has been realized, and, given this President's track record, I can't foresee any over his reign.
Locally, I am interested to see what happens to Fort Craig Elementary, the flagship year round school in Maryville. Due to a focus on the high school and the need to open a modern intermediate school and the costs that go with such changes, the Maryville School Board is seriously considering closing Fort Craig. It appears to be a bizarre move on the School Board's part to me, as somehow closing your best school will improve the educational benefit to the city as a whole, particularly when one takes into account that the savings of closing Fort Craig will only meet about half of the need to open the new intermediate school. Given the pride that Maryville natives have in their school system, saving a buck doesn't exactly seem to fit with the community values here.
From my standpoint, I moved away from an average school system so that my boys would be educated in one that was excellent. I obviously hope that move was not a mistake on this front, and these proposed changes are not positive in that regard.
Labels: Education, Maryville School Board, State of the Union
Permalink posted by Rob Huddleston @ 12:13 AM 
