PROPS: Both sides miss point

It is unfortunate that neither side of the debate on Props 1, 2, 3 ever really discuss a fundamental part of K-12 education.

While one side debates the value and/or required use of take-home computers, others argue that teachers should be given more money and control how classes should be assembled, divided-up, and prepped for a memory test that just might get them into another institution of “higher learning.”

I think both sides are missing a critical point: The next generation should, above all else, be taught various forms of How To Learn.

Instead (and as required), what most teachers spend endless days and hours and years of their life is to imbed into their students the year America was discovered, other assorted pictures of our past, and what information and tools need to be understood in order to be a good, civil citizen.

And now, if the kids get computers (which will be out-of-date upon arrival), and if the state strips the teachers union from collective bargaining rights — or either way that the election goes — we will once again be in a quandary of having yet another generation behind us that doesn’t know How to Learn.

SCOTT BROWN

Coeur d’Alene