It has been a while so many might have forgotten but bill Gates first idea was smaller schools. He reasoned that if small schools on the plains of Nebraska were successful why couldn’t we translate that t the inner city. Well the reasons are legion and he eventually gave up on it admitting it didn’t work out like he hoped. http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/18/gates-foundation-schools-oped-cx_dr_1119ravitch.html
Next after pondering why he would pay an experienced landscaper more than a rookie (teachers are landscapers in the analogy) he decided the best way to improve education was to come up with the best teacher evaluation system possible. And after spending 50 million dollars he decided that kids should evaluate their teachers (a major component of his new proposal) or what teachers like to call one of the worst ideas of all time.
A few months ago he called for spending 5 billion dollars to put cameras in every classroom. He says it is so teachers can get feedback but his previous distain for teachers makes many of us think he doesn’t quite trust us. Say you were to divvy that 5 billion out over ten years we could put about 700 social workers in our most struggling schools so they could tackle what Bill Gates and others to be fair, continuously ignores and that is what happens outside of the classroom is just as important. http://news.yahoo.com/bill-gates-5-billion-plan-let-put-camera-201014925.html
Now we get to his latest humdinger high tech bracelets. According to Yahoo Voices, Gates Foundation, started and run by Bill and Melinda Gates has stepped into he fray by offering cash to Clemson University to study the effectiveness of using sensors worn on the wrists of school children to measure how engaged they are in their lessons, and thus, the effectiveness of what is being taught. Oy Vey and WOW!! http://voices.yahoo.com/gates-foundation-funding-wrist-bracelets-monitor-11465184.html?cat=15
