Reaction to the "If We Didn't Have Schools..." Article

This was a very interesting article that had a few valid points, but similar to other critiques of education, many of the presented ideas merely seem to be a pipe dream. For example, Thomas Carroll, explains that 21st century teachers are old fashioned and need to be taught how to teach in the 21st century. I agree that teachers need to use up-to-date materials and programs within the class room, but problems arise from this. One, many colleges or universities do not have the funds or professors with the capability of enhancing this technology. And two, majority of schools across the country do not have money in the budget to "experiment" with new ideas and ways of teaching. Teaching has become a profession where immediate results are necessary or else people will lose their jobs and schools will lose funding.

As a high school teacher, the one section that hit home to me was the idea of a virtual high school. One of my professors at St. Peter's believed that, within 50 years, all high schools would have high school credits available on-line. In theory I believe that this idea is a positive to education, but interaction between teachers/students and students/students is necessary to enhance learning. This is one of the ideas that could be a very successful option for some students across the country, but it needs to be implemented perfectly. Many problems may arise from technological problems, testing, cheating, to a complete lack of effort on the student or teacher's part, however, some of these problems can be alleviated with excess money in a school's budget

One quote that stuck out in my mind was when Carroll says, "It is estimated that $7 billion a year is being spent to equip schools with infrastructure, networking activities, and hardware. The investment of resources on this scale is comparable to the space program." Maybe government officials, such as Carroll, should remember that there would not be a space program without teachers.