But no learning happened. Computers thus help advance the idea that teachers don t need to know anything in order to teach. Computers are lollipops that rot your teeth, says one English teacher. The kids love them. But it makes reading a book seem tedious.
Books don t have sound effects, and their brains have to do all the work.
Computers, like TV, give the sensation that by merely watching a screen, you can acquire information without work and without discipline. And even if schools are regarded as places for vocational training rather than liberal education, employers do not benefit from school focus on computers. Steven Jobs, the Apple Computer founder who provided thousands of computers to schools, says, What s wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology, and suggests that the computer mania lulls us into thinking that we re doing something to solve the problem with education. As the Wall Street Journal recently said of Bill Gates efforts to endow schools with computers, At issue are problems even the highest technology cannot address. Fundamentally, teachers are not held responsible for the performance of their students, and schools and principals are not held responsible for the performance of their teachers.