Edin08 Blogger Summit – Newt

I’m still reeling a little from my 5 minute interview with Newt Gingrich. More on that in an upcoming Techniques issue! And probably on the ACTE Web site, press release, etc.

Before the mini interview, though, Gingrich spoke and answered questions. He talked about the state of education as a national security problem and said that our greatest strategic challenge is education. He expressed his belief in a profound shift, leaving behind bureacracies and traditional curriculum frameworks. The shift is away from forcing people to learn and not incentivizing learning.

On NCLB, Gingrich called it a “an effort to improve and mop up a bureaucracy representing a terrific 1955 solution.” He also said that adolescence is a failed social experiment. Young adults should be out there earning, and he proposed that students who earn under the age of 17 be exempt from taxes. He also proposed scholarships for every year that students graduate from high school early.

He was also very pro technology and mentioned it specifically as a way to personalize learning for special needs students. He supports dual-enrollment and thinks learning should be faster. And to me he sounded anti-standards, talking about not forcing kids to learn about Versailles in 1799 when there was an earthquake in China that day.