Those days are far behind, and the electronic BreadNet, unlike many telecommunications networks, is connecting students more than teachers. For a recent World Class activity, students first made up essays that introduced themselves. This is a real slice of life for the kids to see. We got very powerful poems from kids all over the world. In some schools on BreadNet, students run the network and are graded on their management.
Students are natural entrepreneurs.
At North High School in Wichita, Kansas, teachers mine this interest to engage students turned off by traditional teaching. As budding businesspeople, they negotiate, read the Wall Street Journal, write business plans, and even write formal business memos when they want to be excused from a class. One of 11 sites around the country for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, North High seeks businesses to fund individual students. One business helps students patent and produce good inventions, another gives them stock in the company. Burdened by large classes and no extra time to give to students desperately needing attention, the teachers are frustrated, concerned, and asking other institutions to get their acts together.