So, I got to thinking. What if that "lost" money could have been allocated to our number one new priority, education? Can you imagine how many teachers would still be employed, how many more laptops could be equipped for youngsters, how many schools we could have saved? All those great ideas out there waiting to be implemented relating to place-based education, school climate, nutrition, etc.? We could have lapped the NCLB bureaucrats several times by now.
Where is the outrage?
I bring this up to point out how upside down our priorities are. OK, I'm done. And now back to our regularly scheduled material...
The article on Gen M was provocative and illuminating. Amazing to think that they are the first generation to be completely plugged in. They have no idea what it was like in the 60's when the big innovations were...drumroll please...color tv, touch-tone telephones and get this, pocket sized calculators.
Ironically, the research indicates that despite all the new gadgets and the speed of information, the M'ers are no more productive than anyone else. Perhaps all this multitasking is not getting us much more than strained eyes and ADHD. I'm not saying this with any glee. Actually, it is sad that some postings tonight refer to a certain loneliness, dare I say alienation from our environment.
In my as yet unrecorded podcast, I plea for educators to slow things down. Use every technology available, but please please please use it wisely to encourage our students to think deeply, not just react to the latest proclamation on the internet. We owe it to ourselves.
--Joe
Maybe the money's in the couch cushions... someone should check.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the outrage, indeed?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if your two topics are connected... are we so plugged in, with so many different streams of information coming at us through NPR and blogs and websites and twitter and email, that we're unable to focus enough for outrage?
ReplyDeleteYou joked about it, but I actually really wonder how the Inspector General accounts for bribes? Especially when a lot of the strategy (as I understand it) in Iraq for the past few years has focused on bribing various warring parties into being allies instead... 15% would actually be a fairly low "cost of doing business" in a lot of developing countries -- it was one of the reasons I never did any fundraising back "home" for my school when I was teaching in Ghana. I didn't want to deal with trying to defend the money from the headmaster and the various local chiefs and the mayor and ... It was a lot simpler to just teach.
Salut Joseph,
ReplyDeleteTes mots intelligents me suggerent une connaissance profonde! Tu as raison... qu' on ne peut pas croire tout ce qui est proclame. Souvent, la verite demeure juste au-dessous le chaos.
Mindy
8.7 billion?! I am indeed outraged. In Shari's class we've been talking about policy reform and whatnot, but for anything to really happen there needs to be a shift in consciousness--teachers need to be respected, paretns need to take some responsibility for their child's education, and people need to demand more for our education system.
ReplyDeleteI can't even begin to think what 8.7 billion would do for education.