Monday, May 14, 2007

School (as we know it) Is Out Forever

Across the pond in Merseyside, England, high school is being redesigned. It's not a partial redesign but a total, throw-the-old-model-out-the-window redesign, reports Richard Gardner of the Independent newspaper.

All eleven secondary schools will be closed within two years, replaced by seven "state of the art, round the clock, learning centres with the aid of Microsoft".

The model tailors the day's assignments to the exact needs and interests of a student. Home learning is also part of the model even the schools will have a greatly expanded school day, including weekends.

This is what I call ground-breaking, literally and figuratively!

How did Microsoft come to choose to become Merseyside's educational benefactor? I'm not sure but Bill and Melinda Gates already had a relationship with the nearby Liverpool School of Tropical Diseases to which they've donated millions of dollars for research on malaria.