The Education Evolving Blog

Guest contributor Tim McClung describes some of the lively discussions in West Virginia this year about student motivation, the profession of teaching, school equity, communities—and ideas and proposals from task forces, workshops, conferences and legislative committees. Most of the fascinating and remarkably different ideas have come from students and younger parents and teachers. But at the end of the day, urgency is not called for.

There has been a lot of coverage and argument of Abby Sunderland’s attempted voyage around the world in a sailboat. The core question of this situation seems not to be whether or not a teenager should be allowed (by her parents, by society) to sail a dangerous voyage - but instead whether she qualifies as a competent adult.

To resolve budget deficits schools and political leaders are arguing over whether they should spend more, or cut. Most likely both will happen. While necessary for the short term, these are not long-term strategies. Pressures on budgets will continue, and there have got to be different choices.

David Brooks wrote a New York Times column last December about facets of an innovation agenda for economic reform.