A Rant on Technology in Education

This is a comment that I posted on a politician's website. The politician has the opinion that because a child was entertained by a video game on an airplane, then we need to change the way that we teach young children by using more technology. I disagree.

It actually makes me sad that a four year old child had to be entertained by a video in order to ride on an airplane. That time could have been spent on meaningful interaction between the parent and the child. I think that pushing technology on children at such a young age actually makes them lazy and less intelligent. What good does it do to funnel money into schools to purchase the latest technology when we continue to graduate children who cannot even read at an elementary level or do simple multiplication? Technology based programs such as Accelerated Math and Accelerated Reading have been used in schools for years and yet the students continue to lack in these basic areas. Technology also becomes a handy “baby sitter” for teachers who don’t want to actually teach – just pop in a video or let kids play games on the computer.

A kid with his head buried in a computer game, texting on his cell phone, or watching a video is not engaged in learning. He is simply pacified for the moment. Technology has made people socially inept, obese, and lacking in basic common knowledge. I seriously think that we need to get back to teaching the basics in elementary school and save the technology for upper level high school, when they should be preparing to either enter the work force or attend college.