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Schoolhouse rock My mother always said never stick anything larger than your elbow in your ear. My grandmothers, both of them, back her up. As a result, I do not own an Ipod. For those of you like me, who are climbing up on the edge of technology and dangling by the finger tips, an Ipod is about the size of a deck of cards only thinner and is capable of digitally recording a whole bunch of stuff. The doo dad has little tiny speakers that plug into your ears. That, along with my lack of desire to own one, is the reason I do not have an Ipod or one of its clones. Along with the advice on what should and should not be stuck in one's ear, my mother was also convinced loud music would ruin my hearing. She was right about that, too. It does, it will, and I'm not about to stick amplified sound right on top of my eardrum. I need what I haven't already ruined to keep working. But that's just me. A school system in another state is considering buying Ipods for their students. The excuse is that textbooks are expensive and that digital textbooks could be downloaded to Ipods. Instead of carrying a heavy bookbag, students could carry one little skinny electronic device. According to this school system, furnishing the students tiny little expensive electronic devices would be cheaper than buying textbooks. I'm not so sure whoever came up with this lame brained idea thought it through. Students can't keep up with books. They lose them all the time. They are big, heavy and smell like schools. How will students keep up with a skinny deck of cards? It's amazing. Textbooks are expensive, but they are sturdy. What usually does a textbook in is not wear and tear, but a change in educational theory or outdated information. Textbooks have a history. They are passed down from one class to the next, giving students an opportunity to pass the time by trying to figure out who scribbled initials on page 84 of their math textbook. Books don't have batteries. Books are just books. They've been around a long, long time. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe the school system in question thinks books aren't doing the job, that switching to something newer and fancier will be the saving grace and make their students smarter at a reduced price. I'm guessing the committee to do away with textbooks doesn't know about the magic wands. There aren't any. There aren't many bargains in education either.
There are many ways to do things faster, more efficiently, easier, by using new technology. But speed, efficiency and ease don't always add up to better. Sometimes, they just add up to stupid.
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