Conferences focuses on bettering Montana education

"The world is changing. So are we getting kids ready for college and careers? The answer is yes, but we could do better." Bob Vogel, director of governmental relations for the Montana School Boards Association.

While teachers are meeting for professional training in Missoula, the Montana Conference on Education Leadership is under way in Great Falls.

More than 800 school superintendents, principals, business managers, school trustees and other leaders from across Montana have come together at C.M. Russell High School to talk about what they do best — and what they could do better.

Written by
KRISTEN CATES

Full Story: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20111021/NEWS01/110210321/Conference-focuses-bettering-Montana-education?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

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Civics, government education key to democracy, Molloy tells teachers

It isn’t just that two-thirds of Americans can’t name one U.S. Supreme Court justice, or that a majority of them can’t list the three branches of government.

No, said U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy, it’s that the "virtual ignorance" of the American people on matters of government and its constitutional powers and prohibitions is a threat not only to the uninformed, but to the well-informed.

"Education is the central tenet of a functioning democracy," Molloy said Thursday afternoon in Sentinel High School’s Margaret Johnson Theater, a fact his audience of Montana teachers – many of them civics and government teachers – know well.

By JAMIE KELLY of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_ac64726c-fb8c-11e0-8af1-001cc4c002e0.html