Greetings edu-siggers -- I was pleased to get my second XO yesterday, am lugging junior to an annual gathering in Southern Oregon today, to share with future movers and shakers (actually Quakers). My agenda for 2009 is to stick with the pro-SQL campaign, still thinking of the latest OSCON, in which I talked about cube farmer frustrations with no "open source Access" and the panelists suggested SQL was in itself meeting students more than half way, i.e. they just need to go the extra mile and stop using training wheels for SQL, even if you want the razzle dazzle Reports (lots of packages have that -- just go straight to PDF half the time). Serving through a browser, using a simple web framework (might be *very* simple) makes plenty of sense on a local laptop, plus your design now tends to scale (unlike some "fat clients" we know). So, lotsa LAMP in high school, easy to implement, apropos in GIS/GPS class (i.e. geography -- a prerequisite for planning jobs, or like with Google Earth). More about that here, including changing LAMP to ARM or AMP maybe: http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2008/12/loose-ends.html Anyway, SQL ties in with "computer algebra" as a kind of marketing name, in addition to "gnu math" and is not that off target, given the abstract algebra themes we've been seeing, i.e. once your focus becomes "type centric" (even with "duck typing") the next logical question (in biology too) is what inter-operates with what, i.e. what binary ops have defined outcomes / meanings, raising issues of closure, versus exceptions, etc. Makes plenty of sense to use small finite sets, integers modulo, build towards RSA -- all that old hat stuff per my Vegetable Group Soup (Flash animation, many other exhibits, on Cut the Knot or wherever). Of course the real questions are all about implementation: Will NCLB get some funding for a change, such that teachers have plenty of opportunities to pick up on this stuff while still holding down the day job? I think in the affirmative on this one, as in-service training has always been a part of the job description. However, there's no guarantee that (a) math teachers are always first in line or (b) your zip code will have it before someplace in Cambodia or Peru (lots of smart geeks out there, not waiting for a green light from any "NCLB Czar", snicker). Looking forward to 2009! Kirby