Mr. Bass

One of the things that has stuck with me since the NCTE conference around Thanksgiving was a session that I attended about a one-to-one laptop program by a school in Nebraska.  The presenters (unfortunately I cannot give them credit because I cannot seem to find the name of the presenters or the school) went through their reasoning about why they chose to adopt the one-to-one laptop program and the barriers that it broke down.  Most of the things that they said were not new to me.  However, one thing that I can’t seem to stop talking to my colleagues about was their motivation for the program…

“We want to be the best school district in the nation.”  Even as I heard this I was thinking, “That’s awfully ambitious isn’t it.”  Before I even completed my thought, he added, “Now, we know that’s a pretty ambitious goal, but why shouldn’t we try.” 

Unfortunately, this is not something that I have often heard in my 11 year educational career.  I don’t know about anyone else, but this bothers me.  Why shouldn’t we have that attitude?  Why shouldn’t we all strive for this?  We can’t all be the best school district in the nation, but don’t we owe it to our students to at least try.  If we have that attitude, it just might rub off on our students.