Thread: The loss of basic skills in school

I just finished reading yet another article about a school getting iPads for its students to be able to do homework at night and get more information. It struck me that as time goes on articles like these become more and more prevalent. From the article about a kindergarten class starting off on the iPad, to high schools doing away with school books in favor of laptops. Just last school year out here, Indianapolis Public Schools are either in the process or have done away with learning cursive due to it not being used later on in life.

I consider myself young, only being 25, but all these articles are starting to bother me. It seems that books and basic skills will continue to be taken from school until students are so dependent on electronics they won't be able to function without them.

Am I the only one?

We live in a world of technology, and kids have to learn how to use it in order to succeed in the future. Yes, it would be great if we could teach kids technology and everything else, but there simply aren't enough hours in the school day.

Yes it's important for kids to be able to use the technology of today and tomorrow however when the basics go by the wayside what you are really doing is making people even more dependent on the technology and in the end less educated.

I was just reading an article discussing how the FAA is getting very concerned about the increasing number of airline accidents caused by pilot error. Today's pilots are reduced to computer operators and button pushers to the point many have little ability to really fly the plane relying on technology and when that fails...well. Something to think about during your next flight eh?

Like everything else in life... Keeping your eye on the truly important things is the trick. Those things best taught by one's parents and family, either the nuclear kind or those created by opportunity and indefinable bonds. Love, friendship, kindness, honor, etc... Don't sweat the small stuff.... focus on nurturing the key character traits and your kids will be able to work out life's ups and downs for themselves.

I am curious if it is cheaper in the long run for them to use tablets/laptops in stead of textbooks. Plus you have the advantage of always have up to date information.

Having more access to information is a good thing. Of course you also need to teach children how to filter out the noise.


re: Cursive. I had to use cursive all through school, but have not used it in years other than my signature.

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.

State of the art technological devices are like fire, they are a good servant and a bad master. So often when technology breaks down, those that have been shown no other way to accomplish basic tasks, mathematical or otherwise, seem helpless. For them it has become their master.

I'd like to say that kids won't be learning much at all when the schools cut out recess altogether.

Originally Posted by Goggles

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.

Well, this is the kind of thing that happens when schools start to list on the stock exchange (I am exaggerating, but it wouldn't surprise me to see this one day). Actually, a private school over here made a 30 million dollar profit last financial year, so by rights all their students should be getting CERN LHCs, not tablets.

What bothers me as a tertiary educator is the complete lack of anything resembling note-taking skills. Yes, understanding and being able to use technology is important - it always has been and always will be - but just a basic ability to take notes seems to elude 90% of the students I see. And since I lecture maths and stats, there aint no way they can take my notes down on a computer during lectures.

And so what tends to happen is that students demand the complete notes be typed up and distributed to them. And because Universities are commercial enterprises, what the students want the students get. And, to compensate for the fact that the academic has had to spend 100s of hours typing up lecture notes into a usable form fit for student consumption rather than spending that time on research and producing papers in journals, we get a publisher and turn those notes into a textbook (you at least get some credit for a book - not as much as say an article in that paragon of scholastic rigour, Nature, but still some). And, as the poster above alluded to, no one reads text books anymore unless they are an iWhatever app, and even then they probably just download it and never open it. And in the end all that is accomplished is that we have re-enforced the belief in the younger generation that everything that is known, has been known, and ever will be known, can be found by googling the internet.

But I digress. What I meant to say was that it is half way through semester, and right now I hate all students!

James.