Jonathan -- thank you for this well-thought-out essay.

I don't know nearly as much about this as you or Heather do, but there is one thing that occurs to me. Thinking back to high school, the teachers usually couldn't give the low-achievers the help that they would have needed to keep up. The teachers didn't have enough time (or, sadly, inclination). Instead, they taught to the majority of the class.

I'm sure there's gobs of educational theory on how to handle this issue. But as we move to using more finely-crafted educational software, that's actually good (with a goal of something like A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer), the software seems like it should be able to babysit the kids that a real teacher couldn't. Some kids that are being left behind now could probably benefit from the infinite patience of a well-written educational program. They'd get more from it than the rich white kids, and hence the gap could be narrowed.

Free, open collaboration could fit in here by designing better educational software, and by making it more accessible to the kids who need it most.

-- GavinSnyder - 03 Dec 2009