In Alaska Education, dinosaurs can evolve and unicorns can take charge. • Alaska Beacon

Conversations about how to rebuild Alaska's education system often boil down to dinosaurs versus unicorns.

Dinosaurs complain of a lack of funding needed to support industrial-age forms of education—with origins dating back to the early 20th century.th The century in which Henry Ford developed the assembly line. Children enter school in kindergarten or the first grade, where they are taught until they graduate, preferably by the 12th grade, and gather together with their peers. Like an assembly line, each grade group thinks, learns, and advances in groups. This industrialized system requires funding for infrastructure, transportation, teachers, administrators, equipment, debt, health, retirement, and more. It is an industrial complex that must be maintained to meet the educational needs of children without putting their educational needs first.

Unicorn educational innovations and successes are proposed as universal solutions without considering long-term impacts and outcomes. I am an enthusiastic unicorn until I start to question all the good things in life. Just recently, I listened to a TED talk by Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy. His talk was about the great benefits of artificial intelligence and how he leveraged it in the creation of his Khanmigo. Khanmigo services can provide tutoring, counseling, lesson planning, and other services that are currently underfunded or staffed in public education. I was moved and excited. I immediately downloaded it to help my grandson with geometry. Luckily, he found the answer before I arrived in Cummigo. I read in the Wall Street Journal recently that Mr. Cummigo has difficulty with basic mathematics. This can cause problems with simple geometries like the Pythagorean theorem. This doesn't mean I completely abandon Cummigo, but it does point out that there is no simple solution to underfunding public education.

I have been working with middle school and high school students for several years. Some attended school seasonally, so I called them seasonal students. Although they were all smart children, most had poor grades and poor attendance and were considered to need special support. Now, what happens to smart kids who are told they're not smart? It's not a great relationship. What I discovered about most of these students was the same as what I knew as a child. Caring adults who treated students with respect and academic challenge were key to academic success. Therefore, reducing the number of teachers and adults in the classroom will impact academic success.

I think most of us can point to problems not only with centers of excellence, but also with dysfunction and apathy.How to balance the education-industrial complex and the educational needs of the 21st century? Century society?

1. Defunding will not make any progress. School districts have the same responsibilities that most of us have in our personal lives. They incorporate costs such as insurance, retirement, roofing, heating, transportation, mortgage (bond issue), and basic maintenance. We cannot escape our obligations. A state cannot declare bankruptcy.
2. I understand Education Secretary Deena Bishop's thoughts on not giving full control to basic school assignments. There is no substitute for a great teacher, so we need to have a long-term vision for how to put the best teachers in front of the most students. There is also a need for an adult-to-student ratio that encourages personal growth.

The good news is that Congress has begun the process of allowing dinosaurs to adapt to a changing world and making unicorns accountable for their magical powers. This is the first time his two species have coexisted and actually been of benefit to Alaska students.

Nothing comes easily or quickly. It takes all of us to embrace education as a top priority for all of Alaska. Alaska did it as a young state, and we should do it now with pride. Towards the future of the north.