Change! ... Anyone Got Any Ideas?

Tonight my class asked me what an Obama administration might mean, especially for education ... well, no surprise, the Obama team has already thought of that. Introducing ... change.gov.

Yep, a day after being elected the new administration has already commandeered (and apparently built) a .gov site for his transition team. Heck, you can even apply for a job in the new administration (yeah, it crossed my mind). 

But, they also have their "agenda" posted. Here is their agenda on education. Its got all the basic stuff, but here is the interesting part ... they want your ideas. So, I encourage you to take them up on their offer. I know I am going to post a few thoughts (a tax credit for all parents providing Internet access to their children has struck me as a pretty good idea for a while). Maybe it is just a gesture, but I sort of doubt it. I think they will actually have people reading these suggestions. So, what's your idea?

American Quote

Andrew Sullivan has the quote for the week: 

"The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults," - Alexis de Tocqueville.

If you have not read Tocqueville's Democracy in America, I really encourage you to do so. There are so many valuable insights in that book about our American system, such as the one above. Tocqueville really has an amazing ability to crystalize in language what many of us already intuitively understand but can't articulate. 

The Historic Day - My Journal

Today is important. I want to share some reflections and feelings not because I think any of you will be interested in them, but that 40-50 years from now I can come back and read about what I was feeling on this day. So, I am going to be updating this thread all day with whatever I am feeling. I am sure bloggers around the globe will be doing the same thing. 

7:50 am - First thing I did this morning was turn on MSNBC and sat in my favorite chair with my son. My son is two, but he knows who Obama is. He usually doesn't get the O on Obama, but he knows. In fact, Obama is the first non-cartoon character that he knows from the television. When I was his age another important candidate in American history was just taking the stage named Ronald Reagan and I see today as the end of the Reagan era. The pundits like to say we are a conservative country - they say that because their generation is a conservative generation. My generation is not - and they are telling that to the country today. I am proud of my generation for having the courage to take leadership in this country and to stop some of the silliness that has been going on lately. I don't know how we will do in governing, but I think we will hold our own - because we are a responsible generation. We did our homework, we work late nights, we see the greater good - like generations before us. I am not sure that one party or the other will be able to hold this generation, but the progressive ideals and lack of a fear of government of this generation will have lasting effects. - I want this day to last forever. I am only going to do a little work today. Mostly, I just want to enjoy this.

10:00 am - Just Voted. I voted for Obama - Biden. There was surprisingly little else to vote for in my precinct. There is an interesting Senate race in Kentucky, but most of the local board members and judges ran unopposed. The lines was about 40 people deep when I arrived and it took me about 50 min. altogether because they only had 2 voting machines for my whole neighborhood, which is very politically active. I live in a very old neighborhood, as the average age of the folks voting was probably 50+. I was probably the youngest homeowner in the line. Everyone was nice and in an upbeat mood and there was no silliness going on. The poll workers told me that at 7 this morning, the line stretched out the door 150+ people deep, and that they expect double that this evening when the polls close. That's a lot of pressure on 2 voting machines.

1:00 pm - Its midday now. With my vote behind me and the events of the evening still hours away, I wanted to reflect a little on education during this campaign. Basically, I want to reflect on what didn't happen. Neither candidate has a real education plan. There are high points in both candidate's rhetoric like Obama's $4,000 Opportunity Tax Credit for college students and Palin's full funding statements on IDEA. But, really, there's nothing there. It's all fluff. Neither candidate had the courage to propose a real education plan. And I think that is very sad. As a believer that the 10th Amendment still means something in this country, I am always mixed on the role of the federal government. But, one area where I am not mixed is on leadership. We are not going to transform our schools without some national leadership and motivation. But, its just not going to happen with either of these two, I am afraid. Consider if one of the candidates proposed putting a laptop in the hand of every public school studnet in the country ... all 50,000,000 of them over the course of five years (kids get new laptops at the beginning of 3rd, 7th, and 10th grades). You spend 10 billion dollars a year on the project on a rolling basis. Think what that would do for math and science development of kids. Think what that would do for new business generation amongst young people. Think of the paper we could save. Think of the sheer amount of copying time that we could save teachers. And, folks, while this may sound like a crazy expensive proposal, it is less than what we spend for a single month in Iraq. Just taking 1/12 of what we are annually spending on Iraq per year, we could digitize education in five years (teachers get laptops and training too). That's a plan. That's substance. That's talking about changing how we do business in schools. But, instead we got fluff. That's why although I voted for Obama, I did not endorse him on this blog. This is an education minded blog and neither candidate had a real education plan, so I didn't endorse.

4:20 pm - I am at the office and really no one is here. Kentucky has a thing where public offices are closed on Election day, including schools, so the doors are locked and the parking lot is empty. So, its like one of those odd federal holidays where businesses are working, but that's it. Luckily my day care was open. I am certainly mixed on this idea. It took me an hour to vote this morning and I plan on watching the returns come in tonight. But, that's it. The rest of the day I am not devoting to the election. So, much of the day is wasted (well, not for me, I came into the office). Perhaps a 1/2 day holiday would be appropriate here. Let all the retired folks vote in the morning when the public offices are open and folks/kids are at jobs/school. Then after lunch, let all the governmental employees out as well as the schools. They can pick up their kids and go vote so the kids get a good civics lesson and the parents get a little extra time to hit the polls. Or, alternatively, we should just invest more heavily in early voting. I am jealous of all the states where there is no-excuse early voting. I wish Kentucky would consider that.

5:30 pm - Ready to go home. My expectations tonight are for an Obama victory and really, I don't expect it to be all that close (in my inter-departmental prediction game I predicted Obama with 333 electoral votes). So, I am not really nervous or anything. My expectations for what I will be feeling tonight are interesting though. Pretty much the whole day I have been on the verge of tears. So far, they have all been tears of joy as I have felt my confidence in America restored over the past months. As I see the internal healing that we are current participating in, I can't help but love the American democracy that makes this possible and the future of that democracy that work for everyday. So, I am expecting to cry tonight. I am not really big on crying, but these are the kinds of things that can bring tears to my eyes because I fully understand the importance of this. Should be an interesting evening. Jennifer, my wife, got Chinese - my favorite food  - so if nothing else, I will enjoy that.

7:30 pm - Kentucky goes to McCain. Literally the first state in the nation to be called. I am from Southern Illinois and feel very comfortable in Kentucky, but the fact that Kentucky didn't even get close in this election gives me some pause. Kentucky is in terrible shape economically ... yet they didn't even consider voting for the Democratic Party candidate. There is no use in avoiding the elephant in the room, race had something to do with it here - although I think less than people would expect. There is more of just a conservative tradition - where people are used to voting for Republicans because that is what they have done for 40 years. But, nevertheless, Kentucky made a statement tonight about how willing or able they are to change in a progressive way and, frankly, I am a little disappointed.

8:10 pm - Like all the primaries, I follow along with the TV with my laptop and the technology in this election is getting pretty good. Once development that wouldn't have happened last election is widgets. Now, all the major media companies are developing widgets which folks like me can put on our own webpages. So, I included a widget on the election below the fold. Also, the county by county results are pretty impressive. I know Indiana pretty well, and watching the county by county results in Indiana is very instructive because I can see when the Republican and Democratic strongholds come in (so far Indiana is looking good for Obama).

9:30 pm - MSNBC calls Ohio for Obama. Its over. Voting is still going on in the West, but its over now. I have a sore throat, but it didn't keep me from shouting.

9:50 pm - It is starting to sink in now a little. We have seen so much of Obama over the last year that it is easy to forget some things. The networks are not showing many pictures of him except the classic headshots, so you focus on the color of the states and not the color of his skin. This is an African-American. Had this been only a few generations ago, the U.S. government would have considered him the property of another human. I mean, its been a long time since then ... but not that long. Just a few generations.

10:30 pm - I was I was in Grant Park, Chicago.

10:50 pm - CNN just did will.i.am by hologram. Yeah, hologram. The technological competition between the networks is fun to watch, but also helpful for the country. Hologram technology is going to see a HUGE boost now that the nation has seen it work.

11:00 pm - The nets call it. A few tears now. What a candidate. What a country.

11:04 pm - No words from the networks ... none for me either. History - that's it.

11:12 pm - Celebration. Worldwide. America is a leader again.

11:20 pm - Tough speech for McCain. He has a large responsibility now to help heal the country. History will remember him well if he does.

11:21 pm - Yes WE can. And did. I will carry the pride of participating in this election with me forever.

11:30 pm - President Barack Obama. President Barack Hussein Obama. The most powerful man in the world. That's just crazy! Would would the odds have been against that happening? A Billion to One?

11:46 pm - Let's take a second to reflect here before his speech begins. Now, we are at landslide. Even Indiana looks to be going Obama. There is something to be said for pure leadership. Yes, this Obama guy is a hell of a politician. But, he is also an honest-to-god leader. When it was a bad political idea to oppose the Iraq war - he opposed it. In the primaries, when it was a bad idea to talk about merit pay - he talked about merit pay. He told Detroit they have to get green. He told the rich they would be taxed more. Here's the thing. The American people are intelligent. They like when people talk to them like adults. The genius of Obama is to assume the American people were willing to hear honesty. To give a speech like this, for instance.  -- But, the underlying genius of Obama is in how he sees the world. It is one thing to speak to the American people honestly, but it is quite another for them to like what you have to say. What Obama had to say was fundamentally that the American government was not something to be scared of. That government is nothing more than a collection of neighbors working toward common goals.

12:06 am - Marvelous speech.

12:18 am - And so it begins. Should be an interesting journey.

12:21 am - Amazing what a man can do with hard work, determination and a keen mind. He can inspire the world.

12:36 am - I am going to bed now, in a very different country than the one I woke up in this morning. Something very, very good about that. A night I will remember forever.

O'Conner on Citizenship Education

I can't help but feel slightly uncomfortable at Justice O'Conner's foray into citizenship education, which is in the blogs again.

We must do a better job of educating young people to become active and informed participants in our democracy.

Absolutely true. But, I feel there is something a little hypocritical about making a statement like that and siding with the majority in Bethel v. Fraser and Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier - cases which have substantially limited students ability to express themselves in practicality, whether or not they are severe limitations in theory. 

Her remedy for this is (1) more civic education:

Civic education has lost ground, and today usually consists of a one-semester course.

(2) Better textbooks and (3) more dynamic instruction. 

The first is problem-based learning, which utilizes primary documents, video clips and news articles to allow students to formulate their own opinions of and test their own arguments for key principles in constitutional and political reasoning. Young people should be encouraged to explore issues like the separation of powers by interacting in their classrooms or in extra-curricular forums through debates, negotiations, mock trials and role-playing. They should be encouraged, to the extent possible, to visit our courts and participate in Teen Court; to visit our state legislatures and Congress; to read newspapers; and to write letters to their elected officials and the editors of their local newspapers. All of these activities will train them to become active citizens.

And in doing all of those activities, students increasingly run the risk of their speech offending school officials and subsequently being disciplined, thanks to Justice O'Conner. It is difficult to have a conversation about real issues that affect these students (not separation of powers?) like drug usage among their peers when the Supreme Court publishes decisions like this.

Plus, the entire operation of the school is a lesson is civics ... in fact, I would contend the school's operation can and does teach students much, much more about civics than even 10 courses and 20 textbooks could ever do. It is one thing to have a course to talk about the beauty of the American government and quite another for the American government to suspend your property right in an education because of expressing your honest feelings on a controversial issue in a school sponsored forum. No civics course in the world could make up for the damage done to that student and all her friends.

So, I can't help but think there is an element of lipservice in O'Conner's civics education push. Yes we should teach our students about our democracy, but we have to realize that we are constantly teaching our students about our democracy every day they attend for 15-20 years. Justice O'Conner, in fact, has already taught our nation's students a lesson in civics ... and I have to say her lessons have been pretty harsh.

The Times We're In

In the 06-07 school year, over 1 in 5 new schools opened in the U.S. was charter school. Still less than 5 percent of all public K-12 schools are charters, but their popularity is growing rapidly.

UCEA Reflections

Spent the weekend at UCEA. I am in the Orlando Airport right now, so I thought I would write a few reflections.

1. Disney was not as bad as I thought it would be ... which is good because we are doing Disney (Anaheim) again next year. Ohh joy.
2. THe hotel was not that bad, not as bad a last year. Downtown Disney was not too far away and walked over their to eat at the Rainforest Cafe one afternoon.
3. Continental is not my favorite airline at the moment. I had to miss a presentation in which I was supposed to present on blogging. I am ticked about that. Jon Becker and David Quinn took care of the presentation and here is the UStream of that session (the volumne is low, but if you turn it up you can hear it):Online video chat by Ustream
4. My other presentation went well, I thought. I think people are a little scared of working with state data to begin to evaluate our leadership preparation programs, so folks were a little apprehensive. Here are the slides from my presentation:
5. Universities are really feeling the effects of the economic downturn. The job market was substantially down, which is really not great for current students on the market. 
6. Great session lead by Patrick Paukin (whose work I really appreciate) and Suzanne Eckes on Ethics and Law and Law and Ethics classes, which is the name of the class I am teaching right now. I will reflect more on this in the future at this blog, but it was really stimulating.
7. UCEA's general future increasingly concerns me. UCEA has some great leadership right now and hopefully what Scott McLeod did for CASTLE he can also do for UCEA as he is now the Communications Director. Apparently, there was some debate about which direction to take UCEA in. UCEA needs to find itself in the field and do it sooner rather than later. A LOT of the law people were missing this time. They use the economic circumstances as an excuse, but that is just a facade. The specialty people are not happy with UCEA and I hope UCEA recognizes that. Here is a little suggestion, the purpose for which UCEA was originally created, sounds like a pretty good purpose going forward.
8. Internet Access - Horrible and Inexcuseable. UCEA did provide projectors, which is a great step and they should be commended for that, but conference hotels should not be chosen in the future without free Internet Access in the conference rooms.
9. Money, money, money. I probably spent $1,200 on this conference and some of that will come out of my own hide. $14 for a scotch. $7 for a beer. $11 for Internet Access. $14 for a burger (which wasn't very good). Even after you pay the $400 flight, $400 hotel room, and $150 dollar registration there are still hundreds of dollars of additional costs.

Overall, it was an enjoyable conference. No conference is ever perfect and UCEA got the big things right at this conference, with the exception of the Internet problem. I really hope UCEA finds it way in the future and if you are a person interested in working in Ed. Leadership preparation, I encourage you to check it out.