Good Morning President Jaramillo, I want to commend you for standing for the student while others did not in last nights meeting. You could have laid out a stronger case but you tried. Your comments that I feel went unheard about flexibility, which I see more as adaptability, were right on as far as the student coming first in the equation. I felt you may have read some of the books I have suggested by progressive educators such as Sal Khan, Clayton Christiansen and Ken Robinson. It amazes me that so many are far more concerned about convenience after we went through 2 years of total school inconvenience and educational loss while developing and adapting to methods to navigate it. You eloquently brought up the significance of bringing forth and building on remote learning as Mr Woford countered in a highly non-student centric manner. If our children do not come first what is the point of education? All children do not learn best in a classroom environment. Woford is a dinosaur. Internet based content in many cases far outperforms what can happen in a classroom. As you said, it can be easily used as an enhancement mechanism if used by skilled fosterers of learning. As far as Project Based learning, High Tech High In San Diego is the model for that. The challenge to it is a lack of educators with a creative mindset which is so required for all going into the future. Once again, flexibility and adaptability. Our students are disconnecting from school because of a lack of quality educators that can connect in a student relevant manner. I feel teacher burnout is a poor excuse as I see the burned out ones are just no longer qualified to do the work necessary for the 21st century. We can adapt to that by using better methods that are less classroom teacher focused. Possibly teaching should not be seen as a long term career for most that embark on it. In todays hyper paced world only a few can keep up. Internet based learning is here to stay and is improving by the digital second. Attempting to deny students of it in order to please the classroom teacher just further alienates our students. They may be sitting in that classroom going through the motions but are completely mentally disconnected. Once again, I offer my education resource list (attached). My goal is to educate parents and students to the fact that there are better educational methods that the consuming public is being denied because of entrenched standardized mindsets. As the saying goes, if one does not know where they are going there is no sense in going at all. I hope developing the necessity and desire for life long learning is that destination. Sincerely, Rob Wood
