Technology can never replace inspiring teachers
By ALBERT H. VERVAET
SPECIAL COMMENTARY
SPECIAL COMMENTARY
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2011
Over past decades we’ve seen a whole parade of educational “bandwagon” panaceas come and go. Among them: “Progressive Education,” “Back to Basics,” “No Child Left Behind” and, more lately, “Race to the Top.” Most all of those efforts were intended to mend an increasingly tattered American public education system, but for one reason or another they simply never proved totally successful, and in some cases they were even detrimental — although the verdict is not yet in on the last of those mentioned.
The newest magic elixir is the idea of minimizing the role of living teachers by replacing them with technology-based education, in the form of laptop computers and other technological devices. However, according to a major article appearing in one of the nation’s leading newspapers, a school district in Arizona serving 18,000 students invested roughly $33 million in technology-centric education (while, at the same time, laying off a number of teachers due to budgetary