The Great Laptop Panacea Boondoggle

One of the more common laments heard emanating from the mouths of politicos is, “Why is Johnny so stupid?.” In reply to their own vacuous question you’ll typically hear the politicos, of all stripes and persuasions, reply, “Johnny is so stupid because we haven’t thrown enough money into the educational system.”

One of the more recent ways private individuals state stolen dollars have been chewed up and swallowed whole by the state run educational system, spoonful of sugar not included, has been the purchase of laptop computers for every student.  As if, magically, students will attain new scholastic highs by booting up and logging on to the internet.  But what have these wonderful toys actually accomplished in the halls of education?

“After seven years, there was literally no evidence it had any impact on student achievement — none,” said Mark Lawson, the school board president here in Liverpool, one of the first districts in New York State to experiment with putting technology directly into students’ hands. “The teachers were telling us when there’s a one-to-one relationship between the student and the laptop, the box gets in the way. It’s a distraction to the educational process.”

And this.

Yet school officials here and in several other places said laptops had been abused by students, did not fit into lesson plans, and showed little, if any, measurable effect on grades and test scores at a time of increased pressure to meet state standards.

Individual scholastic achievement will not be attained via the state brandishing another fistful of dollars, but rather through individual students applying themselves to their studies.  Hopefully in a private school setting.

Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops

Posted by on 05/04 at 06:49 AM

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below:


Next entry: Eurabia, or Not?

Previous entry: Massachusetts Dolts

<< Back to main