From the Facts They Don't Teach You The world spent years pushing screens into classrooms. Tablets replaced textbooks. Digital assignments replaced handwritten notes. Schools were told that the future of education was sitting behind a screen. Now some European countries are starting to reverse course. Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, Italy, and Denmark are all moving away from heavy classroom digitalization and bringing back something many schools thought was disappearing: printed books, handwriting, and traditional reading. And this shift is not happening because of nostalgia. It is happening because researchers have found that writing by hand and reading … [Read more...]
How the laptop revolution destroyed public education
A guest editorial published at The Blaze. Click this link to go to the website: https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/how-the-laptop-revolution-destroyed-public-education?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dlvr.it_fb_conservative-review&tpcc=social_fb-post The Chromebook turned class into a constant battle with distraction, and students learned to game the system faster than schools could patch it. A recent Fortune magazine article made waves with a grim admission: After more than $30 billion spent flooding classrooms with laptops and tablets, standardized scores keep sliding. Worse, neuroscientists now link more classroom screen time to lower … [Read more...]
Screen vs. Paper: Which One Boosts Reading Comprehension?
Today's article is from Oxford Learning: https://oxfordlearning.com/screen-vs-paper-which-one-boosts-reading-comprehension/ In today’s digital world, reading on screens has become the norm—but is it the best way for students to learn? Neuroscience research suggests that reading comprehension, not just what we read, plays a crucial role in comprehension, retention, and overall academic success. When we swap pages for pixels, we’re changing the way our brains process information. For students, this can make a significant difference in their ability to absorb and retain what they read. The Print Advantage: What Science Says Studies show that reading print books leads to better reading … [Read more...]
Sweden School Tablets vs Books
Sweden has been reconsidering the role of digital tools, such as tablets, in its education system, particularly in response to concerns about declining reading comprehension skills among students. The country has historically been a leader in digital education, with tablets being a common sight in classrooms for over a decade. However, recent policy shifts have emphasized a return to traditional learning methods, such as the use of physical books and handwriting, especially for younger students. In 2022, Sweden’s Minister of Education, Lotta Edholm, expressed alarm over the decline in Swedish children’s reading comprehension skills, as highlighted by the Progress in International Reading … [Read more...]
Why Education is the ‘Fraud of the Age’
From Intellectual Takeout. https://intellectualtakeout.org/2018/08/why-education-is-the-fraud-of-the-age/ There’s always something thrilling about the start of a new school year or semester. New clothes to wear. Fresh books to explore. New teachers to meet. It’s all become a part of what we call back-to-school and the education experience. Of course, many of us will quickly agree that the new books and clothes aren’t really what matter. It is the ideas we learn and the schooling we get that make the real difference both in the present and in the future. But what if that schooling isn’t as wonderful as we’ve thought? Given stagnating test scores, the decline of thinking, and the rise … [Read more...]
Homeschool moms sue over pencils, and books, and flashcards, and erasers
From WorldNet Daily (Bob Unrun): Homeschool moms sue over pencils, and books, and flashcards, and erasers * WorldNetDaily * by Bob Unruh (wnd.com) \ Homeschool moms in Arizona are suing the state over pencils, and books, and flashcards, and erasers. They are just some of the standard classroom materials needed – that the state suddenly and arbitrarily banned them from purchasing with their state-allotted Empowerment Scholarship Account funds. It is the Goldwater Institute that is helping them. "ESAs allow parents to use a portion of their children's allotted state funding to purchase books, school supplies, and other curriculum materials that they can use to educate their … [Read more...]
The Schools That Are No Longer Teaching Kids to Read Books
The Atlantic published the following piece on MSN. It's a 10-12 minute read Recently, an old friend of mine from elementary school ran a hand over my bookshelf, stopped, and said, “You stole this.” “I did not!” “Yes, you did. You totally stole it from school.” She pulled out my copy of The Once and Future King, and showed me the inside of the front cover. It was stamped: Board of Education, City of New York. Okay, so I stole it. But I had a good reason. I loved that book so much; I couldn’t bear to return it to the school library. My grade-school memories are full of books: bulletin boards that tracked the class read-a-thons, hand-written book reports, summer-reading lists. But a … [Read more...]
Why do tech leaders limit their children’s use of tech? What do they know we don’t?
The people who develop and sell technology for use in schools telling us how valuable and useful it is tell us: Technology will improve test scores in K-12. Technology will make every child equal in school. Technology will bring the United States into the 21st century so we can compete with the world. Technology will allow individualized education which will be better. Technology gives us more data so we can improve the educational experience. Technology gives instant access to knowledge. Technology prepares students for the future. Technology connects with students. Technology makes learning more fun ("gaming"). Technology helps save the environment by … [Read more...]
Chronicles of Narnia & Writing Skills
This story is inspired by an article that ran at Intellectual Takeout. Question: What percent of todays 8th to 12th grade students are proficient at writing? Answer is....~27% C.S. Lewis is recognized as the writer of The Chronicles of Narnia along with a number of other books. The story goes that he received a letter from a young girl with some examples of her writing asking for his comments. In his praise he offered some five (5) suggestions: 1) Strive for Clarity “Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure y[ou]r sentence couldn’t mean anything else.” 2. Use Plain and Direct Language “Always prefer the plain direct word to … [Read more...]
Education and the Hive Mind
What we are about prophesy may, at first glance, seem outrageous but please hold judgment until we can make our arguments. We believe you will see this in our lifetime but it could take 20-30 years to come to fruition. Education (we’re going to focus on K-12 but this will ultimately transition to higher education) is undergoing major change as we write this blog article. We’ll bring all the pieces together so you see what we see in the crystal ball. Goal: Every child will be taught exactly the same information on the same day and time in every school in America. This will allow children to move (relocate) and be at exactly the same place so they never lose a step. This is the goal of … [Read more...]