•Which theories and historical influences should most impact the schools we'd like to have?

Of all the historical influences in the public school systems over the years I think the most important one to continue forward is the mindset after Sputnik I. America was determined to be smarter than the Soviets in Math and Science so the government provided funding for schools to have the materials and curriculum needed to create a better program. There is no need to specify the subjects to those two areas anymore, and we are not in a race against the Soviets anymore either, but the thought process is a good one. We want to be a smarter country so we need to educate our students. The rest of the world is slowly catching up and overtaking American in terms of engineering and education. To continue to be a world power we cannot let our schools fall further behind. The competitive edge has been removed from the American school system, we are now trying to get every child to be able to pass a standardized test. We need to get back into the mindset that made the United States great to begin with, we need to want to be the best and be willing to put in the time and money to achieve that in schools. Going forward in this class I would like to see how much money is spent on "regular" curriculum compared to how much is spent on programs connected to "no child left behind".