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Aiming the guns at technology

Dec 15, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
I was somewhat jolted by the Kaieteur News Editorial of December 13th, 2015 entitled, “Can Technology Replace Old-fashioned Teaching?” Not merely because it should have been a one word response – “NO!!!”, but more so by the fact that the writer seemed to be actually making a case for “old-fashioned teaching” as a purely positive construct.
I tried to determine how old is the “old” to which the writer was referring, and it seems that they were championing the age of learning by rote and memorization. I won’t challenge the suggestion that many were well served by that learning methodology; but I would suggest in counterpoint that “we” were served well because we were being trained for “success” in society as it existed at that time; and the principal measure of that success was the ability to regurgitate memorized material on cue.
The ability to recite times tables or the parts of the verb “to be” are not – nor have they ever been – indicators of actual intelligence.  They were merely signs of a child’s ability to memorize words and some mnemonics – often under severe physical duress. I sincerely hope that this is not the “old-fashioned” learning metaphor to which the writer was referring.
The utility of rote learning is at best questionable; and many students who were masters of rote proved unable to reason. And I challenge the premise that the child who learns to write – with a pencil – is more adept or learned than one who uses a handwriting program on an electronic device. The litmus test is that the child learned to write, and how they will use that skill going forward. I learnt to form letters and numbers on a slate!!! Maybe it’s those new-fangled exercise books and “lead” pencils that doomed the next generation.
I had to assume that the writer was “penning” their work while sitting in front of a word processor of sorts, after which it would be electronically submitted for review, then, also electronically submitted for “typeset” and printing. No more manual – or even electric – typewriter; no more mark-up; no more letterpress; no more photo developing and negatives. The world has changed; and we need to adjust to the pace and direction of that change. And aiming the guns at technology from the platform of that same technology is quite quizzical – at best.
It is, indeed, important for children to learn to read, write and use the encyclopedia.  But “old-fashioned” encyclopedias were beyond the economic reach of most.  We should celebrate the democratization of information through electronic means, not dilute the perception of its efficiency. In defense of the Editorial, it is dangerous to expect technology to “replace teachers, learning, textbooks, pencils or the brain.” But the judicious use of emerging technologies is the safest way forward. And I didn’t get that sense of balance from the piece. I return to the editorial writer who, working against a deadline, would probably be better served “boast(ing) how fast they could click a mouse” rather than yearning for the delicate penmanship of their Vere-Foster cursive.
Louis London

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