It was a real pleasure to read an education success story.. Bravi to the hard working, talented and creative Hillview School Faculty. It shows what can be done with leadership at the top!!

I don't think the week was as perfect as the article states. It's unfortunately that a parent was allowed to publish such a biased article. I wish the Almanac would have taken the time to present an unbiased, balanced story about the week. Not all teachers were teaching their passion and not all student experiences were positive. I love the idea of it, but I think, for the amount of money that was spent, alot of work needs to be done to make this worthwhile for all students.

I like the wide ranging goals of this experiment, from top to bottom, and soup to nuts. And I love how the leadership at Hillview strived to do something different within the limits of typical public school constraints. What a gift to go through such a learning process like that. While the week wasn't perfect for all, I couldn't have been meant to be perfect. That line of thinking is missing the point. More was created and learned by a different way of working than can be valued by the misc costs associated with such a project. I can think of lots of wasted time and materials doing things the same way year after year after year and precious time is gone! Congratulations Hillview!

If you actually speak to the teachers, it was not all it was cracked up to be. It was an exhaustive process, class sizes were all over the board, and it didn't accomplish what many had hoped. And the cost to this program was more than $100,000! For five days of exposure and fun? If the school/district can set aside that much money YEAR AFTER YEAR for this mini-course week, we should never have to hear about financial issues again! While this sounds amazing, I'm not sure the cost outweighs the benefits.

If the district wants Hillview to emerge as a leader in 21st century education, our leaders need to remember that to be a leader you must have followers. Very, very few schools in the state could spend $100,000 to replicate Hillview's week-long activity.

Our students could learn many 21st century skills by being involved in ongoing, meaningful community service activities.