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 welcome to the internets premier listing for all your educational needs. Containing over 15,000 links to some of the best educational resources on the Internet, The Library in the Sky guides teachers, students, parents,librarians, and members of the community on their journeys through teachingkidstoread cyberspace. The Library was visited over 900,000 times in 1999, and we anticipate well over 1 million visitors in 2000! THE MATTER OF setting standards for American education is certainly teachingkidstoread quite visible these days, but much of what we hear about it is not very enlightening. The talk is frequently filled with ideological heat rather than with critical light, and the tone of the discussion is more often nostalgic than realistic. In addition, the pitch in favor of standards is In that year, which was teachingkidstoread some 40 years after the start of a massive effort by reformers to consolidate districts into larger administrative units, there were about 120,000 individual school districts in the U.S. This meant that on average there were only two schools per district. Now, that is really local control. Even now, after consolidation has continued for another 60 years, we still have about 15,000 separate school districts -- each with primary control over financing, staffing, and setting curriculum standards for our schoolsCertainly state governments teachingkidstoread have taken steps over the years to assert greater control over these matters in K-12 schooling, and even teachingkidstoread the federal government has made tiny and tentative moves in this direction. But all these efforts have been undertaken in the face of enormous resistance by local communities, teachingkidstoread and teachingkidstoread which have vigorously fought to preserve the autonomy of their schools. we have increasingly held the view that education is a private good, which should serve the individual interests of educational consumers, rather than a public good, which should serve the broader public interest in producing competent citizens and productive workers. First, consider our traditional commitment teachingkidstoread to preserving local control. The core issue here is the wide and deep strain of libertarian sentiment that lies at the heart of the American psyche. The urge to preserve individual liberty is a key to understanding American society, and it is what defines our distinctive approach to politics, economics, and education. Don''t tell me what to do" has long been our national slogan. By it we have meant in particular that government should keep off our backs -- especially government that is far removed from our local community. All you need to do is remember that this nation was born of an uprising the most complete listing of teaching styles on the web
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