{"id":6320,"date":"2011-09-06T23:57:32","date_gmt":"2011-09-06T23:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=6320"},"modified":"2011-09-06T23:57:32","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T23:57:32","slug":"magical-thinking-watch-whiteboards-in-every-classroom-a-literate-student-in-every-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/magical-thinking-watch-whiteboards-in-every-classroom-a-literate-student-in-every-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Magical Thinking Watch: Whiteboards in every classroom, a literate student in every home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Education technology does not seem to be solving our education woes.\u00a0 So\u00a0concludes this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/04\/technology\/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?_r=1&amp;scp=1&amp;sq=kyrene%20arizona&amp;st=cse\">impressively-reported <em>New York Times<\/em> story<\/a> on an Arizona school district that has spent $33 million since 2006 on the ed. establishment\u2019s usual panaceas of \u201cwhiteboards,\u201d laptops, and interactive computer programs.\u00a0 Despite this outpouring from the taxpayer cornucopia, test scores have remained flat.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Big surprise.\u00a0 Educational technology would be the solution to mediocre academic performance only if the lack of educational technology were the cause.\u00a0 Somehow, however, John Milton managed to learn Latin, Greek, and Hebrew without an Ipad, as did thousands of other children far less gifted than he; generations upon generations have mastered algebra, geometry, and the rudiments of historical knowledge just reading from\u2014gasp!\u2014books!\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The most important tools in the classroom are self-discipline, perseverance, and a desire to learn (or, failing that, fear of the consequences for not doing so).\u00a0 Don\u2019t expect the ed. establishment and its by now massive orbiting planetary system of consultants, foundations, and contractors to acknowledge that fact, however, since it would entail getting back to basics, restoring order, intellectual authority, and discipline in the classroom, and demanding hard work from children and commitment from parents.\u00a0 All that is far too judgmental and socially divisive.\u00a0 Not to mention that it would defund the highly-profitable ed. industry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Education technology does not seem to be solving our education woes.\u00a0 So\u00a0concludes this impressively-reported New York Times story on an Arizona school district that has spent $33 million since 2006 on the ed. establishment\u2019s usual panaceas of \u201cwhiteboards,\u201d laptops, and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/magical-thinking-watch-whiteboards-in-every-classroom-a-literate-student-in-every-home\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6320"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6322,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6320\/revisions\/6322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}