Quote Originally Posted by Goggles View Post
I can't think of any good reason why textbooks shouldn't disappear. That's the last kind of book that should be preserved. How many heavy textbooks get printed, hauled around, abused and destroyed while going virtually unused? I just finished an engineering degree and the fraction of a given textbook that's even assigned to be used in a course is tiny, let alone the fraction that students actually look at. On top of that, they go out of date almost yearly so that the publisher can waste another 1000 tons of paper printing (and selling) negligible revisions. The sooner the whole textbook system is virtualized the better, IMHO. Printed textbooks are an incredible waste and inconvenience.

We all know that basic math skills are vital, but you probably wouldn't defend a slide rule in place of a calculator.

Learning cursive ought to be like learning latin. I was taught cursive in school but that time would've been a lot better spent teaching me how to print better. That's the kind of writing I use, and maybe my girlfriend wouldn't make fun of it so much if it were better.
Hard to disagree about text books actually.

Calculators vs slide rules i don't know, i'm not actually advocating slide rules (although i have to say they're very handy in engineering, hydraulics etc) but i worry about peoples reliance on calculators, especially mine. We shouldn't be teaching people to use a calculator instead of being able to do the math. In my engineering degree the only time i'd used a calculator in exams was so that i didn't have to express the final solution to an equation as a fraction. But nowadays i find myself reaching for the calculator for even the simplest addition. That's just lazy.

And as for cursive being like learning latin, well, after learning a learning french a few years ago while living there and having developed an interest in language, i just wish i'd listened more in latin class in school. School used to be about expanding your mind, and i don't necessarily agree that teaching kids via computer based systems, powerpoint presentations etc is a better method, just means you need less teacher interaction and less teachers as opposed to someone who has been shown how to run the "learning unit", Less teachers.. now that would be a tragedy.