The Observation Deck

Today's New York Times has an interesting article about a school in silicon valley that eschews the use of computers in the classroom, and draws a lot of students whose parents work in the IT industry.

Here, I hope, is a link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/techn ... -wait.html

I saw that one. I'm all for expreriential Ed. Notice that they start ramping up the tech, though, around middle school. My family and I spend our whole summer absolutely unplugged while working and living at a summer camp in western Michigan. The benefits of having our screen-addicted children out in the woods and "doing stuff" is great. However, if the message is that the silicon valley folks know something that we don't about technology, I think the link is anecdotal at best. We live in an information age that is linked strongly with technology. This is very similar to thinking about the way that refrigeration and grocery stores have forever altered the way we get food (I.e., I don't know how to hunt, don't need to hunt, and am entirely dependent on the "technology" of refrigeration and grocery stores to get my food). Looking at things this way, the article may as well be about grocery store owners sending their kids to hunting camps. They're nice, have benefits, but ultimately there fan be no argument about the need for, and benefits of, grocery stores.

If the kids went through their entire schooling without using any of the information technology we now have, I'd venture to guess that they'd be woefully unprepared for the demands of the workplace and university.

It was a good article and definitely got me thinking this morning. Thanks for posting it here, Will.

I just posted it for information. I don't necessarily agree with it.

There are substantial differences between a public school and an exclusive private school. I would guess that the students in that school are very similar in terms of heredity and experience, while a public school has to deal with more variety.

Also, its been my experience that people who study technology, or science in general, are almost illiterate in subjects outside their field; I wonder how much of the feeling behind that school reflects parents dissatisfaction with their own pigeonholing. My own kids are good in technology, but I compelled them to get a liberal arts degree and then satisfy their technological urges in graduate school. It seems to produce a more complete person.