First Day of Class

Last night I had my first 'Effective Use of Technology' class for the spring '10 semester. Right now I still feel a little disoriented and the goals of the class rather hazy but hope after one or two more classes, once we get into the swing of things, these feelings will work themselves out.

We discussed whether or not education in America needs to be reformed. Do I think it does? My mind was racing in a million offshoot topics as we discussed this topic and suffice to say after all that I really am not sure where I stand. My sister has been teaching in Philadelphia for about 8 years now and through her eyes I've seen how corrupt and ill run the public school system is. No doubt the troubled Philly schools aren't the only ones in the country/world that need to be fixed but at the same time I feel that, to solve the problems of one school we cannot use a 'fix all' solution because certain problems (while some often universal) are very specific.

Times are changing and I as much as it scares me to see how fast the world is moving forward education will need to adapt to these changes. In particular, those relating to technology.It isn't necessarily good though why we need to compete with other countries. America used to be a leader in industry and if that hadn't been sold out from under a nation that willingly allowed it to be pushed away with two hands to nations that were grateful to take it... we wouldn't be struggling to make these quick adjustments.

Despite how great my opposition, how much resistance there is to my point of view on the matter, I will continue to feel as I do now- me being up against a whole society who has come to believe the opposite of what I believe is best. My stance on technology and preparing to gear our whole American society toward a technologically proficient yet industrial insufficent nation is this:
It can be a great convenience. Lord knows in writing my story it makes things go much faster when I'm editing on a computer versus by hand on paper, but why on earth do four year olds need to be using Ipods and computers as opposed to reading or building things?
Who is going to mind the farm and deliver our goods to the stores when everyone has been ushered off into offices with college degrees? Children still need to be outside using their imaginations and playing until they get of age where they begin to outgrow this, which is when I first started using technology. Am I any less productive or skilled? In areas where I am not it isn't because I couldn't be, I chose not to be because I fear what will happen to a world totally overrun by computers. Will people know how to live/survive if something tremendous should happen and we'd be without it all?

Illiteracy and such are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of America educational plagues. Is it entirely on account of schools not doing their jobs? They are doing the same if not better than what they were 50 years ago when most kids went on the graduate from highschool knowing how to read and write. Many problems are social, it's just easier to blame the educational system it seems, when needed. Theere are teachers in inner city schools who are there to teach, standing in empty classrooms. Where are the students? They don't want to learn, because it isn't cool to take education seriously in our culture anymore. Watch tv or movies or geared towards a certain age group anyday and see who the smart kids are. The nerdy kids, the ones who are bullied and ugly and sit alone in the lunch room with glasses on and braces. The epitome of uncool is being smart. How is this the schools' fault that kids don't care? Perhaps there are severe deficits in our social structure as well.