How Important Is Technology In Choosing A School?

This article so misses the point.  Many educators are emphasizing technology in the classroom as the answer to our nation's education ills.  The author reports:

“Technology is the way our students are learning,” she told FoxNews.com.

Like many other teachers around the country, she recognizes the growing importance of bringing technology into the classroom. "I believe that it will enrich our students experience in a 21st century school. I believe it will make us a global community and help our students to learn beyond our physical classroom.”

Having new technology is nice, but it is not the answer.

 

One of the blessings of God‟s common grace is the gift of technology. Technology may be defined as the application of man‟s creative abilities to industrial, commercial, or other practical objectives. Technology includes the electronic and computer products and systems that result from that application.

The Bible describes positively a wide range of technologies that are used to great benefit in various vocations. God is described in Scripture as being a Maker (Job 4:17; 32:22; 35:10; Prov 14:31; 17:5; 22:2; Is 17:7). Other passages describe God Himself as metalworker (Is 1:24–26) and tentmaker (Ex 25:9). Other vocations that involve the use of technology are the shepherd (Ps 23:1), the potter (Is 64:8), the builder (Ps 102:25), and the farmer (Ps 80:8; Hos 10:11).

 

On the other hand, technology may be used for evil. Technology is not pleasing to God when it is used by man to promote idolatry, pride, self-reliance, materialism, and the human illusion of unlimited achievement without consideration of God. (Gen. 11).

Thus, rightly used, as a blessing of God‟s common grace, technology can provide many benefits and conveniences. Technology also can be dreadfully dehumanizing, idolatrous, and promotive of sinful pride and self-reliance. If used wrongly, technology can be destructive of human dignity (part of the imago dei) as men and women feel themselves no longer persons with a name that expresses their unique dignity, but, in Arnold Toynbee‟s words, “serial numbers punched on a card designed to travel through the entrails of a computer.”

 

Crusades to revolutionize schools through technological advances have existed as long as education itself. We eschew academic fads that promise greater hopes (“It‟s new, easy and fast!”) but fail to deliver time and again. Instead, look for schools that are committed to the ancient, tried, and true methods of teaching.  

 

Computers have their dangers and deficiencies as well. Computers promote passive, as opposed to active, learning. They may promote isolated learning, as opposed to the relational, propositional, interactive, and oral learning essential to a sound education. Larry Cuban of Stanford University and former president of the American Educational Research Association has observed, "There is no clear, commanding body of evidence that Students' sustained use of multimedia machines, the Internet, word processing, spreadsheets, and other popular applications has any impact on academic achievement." Indeed, a number of studies have demonstrated that the pervasive use of computers in the classroom as an impersonal replacement for a living, breathing Teacher is detrimental to education.

Never forget that the best means of instructing Students is through qualified human Teachers. While personal computers can assist the accomplishment of work and studies, they are no replacement for capable Christian instructors who love the Lord, love their Students, love their subject, and have a passion to communicate that love to their Students.

 

 

Career Education Is NOT The Answer!

This article in the St. Petersburg Times has it all wrong.  Job training is not the proper goal of high school.  I repeat:  Job training is not the proper goal of high school. 

What is the goal?  Or at least what should it be?  It is to develop the skills necessary for life-long learning.  This is the central thesis of the Dorothy Sayers essay on which classical Christian education is founded.  Learning is to be life-long!  Therefore, the goal of education is to teach how to learn, not just what to learn.

Job training programs emphasize, on the other hand, specific task-oriented skills.  But this is so shortsighted.  The jobs of today will not necessarily be the jobs of tomorrow.  As a society, focusing on job training may well end up teaching skills that will be obsolete by the time the student graduates.

What is the goal of a sound education?

• To point to salvation and personal service to Christ.
• To prepare the graduate for lifelong scholarship by giving him or her the ability to expanding the intellect, purifying the passions, and fortifying the will.
• To encourage the graduate to be a helpful churchman and contributing citizen, no matter what his or her occupation.
• To equip for constructive engagement with the community.
• To promote benevolent service to others in society.
• To prepare students to enter into the Great Conversation of Western Civilization.

None of these aspirations are job-specific.  Wanting students to have goals is a good thing.  But we as Americans are far too easily pleased.  By focusing on job-training, we are not raising our sights high enough.  To change our culture and advance the cause of Christ.  There is a worthy goal for education.