Chapter 3 Reflection-Rethinking Education

"It is not that schools never change. It's that schools chance very slowly!" (page 30)

This quote shows how much the schools are hurt when funding is cut, they can't afford to change the technology that they have since they still have to worry about buying textbooks and other resources for the school.  In order to get a new technology into the school, the school needs the money to come from somewhere.  Even if the the new technology is funded by someone the school would still have to pay for someone to install it as well as possible updating the servers or electricity in the room if the school were receiving computers.  Its sad that many other business have up to date electronics while the schools are still stuck with technology that is 5-10 years in the past.

"Taking students to the computer lab takes more time. And unless the tasks are short ones, such as drill and practice systems provide, it is difficult to get much done in the allotted time." (page 39)

I think that it is important for students to get into the computer lab a few times during every month.  Doing work on the computer usually gets students excited and it also allows students to get out of the classroom and into a change of environment.  Even though it may take 5-10 minutes of class time to go to the computer lab and log on it is worth it for the students.  To avoid some of the time that is lost at the beginning of class the teacher can have instructions on the board and also have printed out instructions for each student to follow.

"School pursues the goal of covering all the important knowledge that people might need in the rest of their life. As knowledge has grown exponentially, textbooks have grown fatter and fatter. It has become more difficult to cover all the important material, and so curricula have become "a mile wide and an inch deep."" (page 46)

A lot of the information that students learn in school is forgotten by the time they reach adulthood.  Which is demonstrated on the show "Are you smarter than a fifth Grader".  If you have ever seen the show you know that many times the contestant struggles with some of the harder questions.  Perhaps if the information was shortened that students are expected to learn they would retain more of it and actually be able to use it later in life.