A rant: Technology and Vendors in the Schools, anyone else hate it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate computer programs. I want textbooks and homework on paper.

Amen, I don’t know when textbooks were phased out but every year I am disappointed there are none.

Textbook management is a nightmare. Also most of them are poorly written with numerous errors and school systems can't afford to keep replacing them. The reality is it is horrible to depend upon them. The companies don't make enough money to make it worth their while to publish a good product. This is backwards.

Then the school system should publish their own textbooks. This is what many virtual schools do including K12. Also most textbooks for homeschoolers are very well written. At the very least, students should be sent home workbooks for the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP lost me at handwriting. Seriously? Next you are going to complain they don't teach kids how to darn their socks.

We want them to be comfortable with technology because technology is the future. Handwriting is dead. I am glad for enrichment activities that the school provides out of the common core whether it's trips, or art or STEM.

You want Handwriting? Geeze

Handwriting helps to imprint a feel for language - particularly cursive instruction. If you want Junior to grow up to be a SysAdmin, then by all means send them to a large DMV public school. (Former disgruntled MCPS parent who could say ditto to all of the critiques about FCPS. Our schools are targets for corporate sales. I saw leadership at Discovery Communications salivate over top 15 school budgets - hence the launch of Discovery Education twenty years ago.

Here’s the piece on cursive

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain

I work as a sysadmin and plan to steer my kids into the field and spend all of my egregious sysadmin salary on a private ES which is one step from Amish in terms of the electronics available.

It is interesting how many people who work in STEM/IT and tech executives all want to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP lost me at handwriting. Seriously? Next you are going to complain they don't teach kids how to darn their socks.

We want them to be comfortable with technology because technology is the future. Handwriting is dead. I am glad for enrichment activities that the school provides out of the common core whether it's trips, or art or STEM.

You want Handwriting? Geeze

Handwriting helps to imprint a feel for language - particularly cursive instruction. If you want Junior to grow up to be a SysAdmin, then by all means send them to a large DMV public school. (Former disgruntled MCPS parent who could say ditto to all of the critiques about FCPS. Our schools are targets for corporate sales. I saw leadership at Discovery Communications salivate over top 15 school budgets - hence the launch of Discovery Education twenty years ago.

Here’s the piece on cursive

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain

I work as a sysadmin and plan to steer my kids into the field and spend all of my egregious sysadmin salary on a private ES which is one step from Amish in terms of the electronics available.

So jelly!

As a civic gesture, you could give a presentation to the school board and/or Gatehouse about the advantages and why you chose the type of school for your DCs. Give them a better perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what your solution is, OP? Ours has been to send to a $$$$ private school. But even this school ramps up its tech use around 3rd or 4th grade according to hearsay. Not sure what to do after that.

LOL if you’re concerned about tech/vendor incursion, private solves precisely none of that. If a private school doesn’t take public money, FERPA doesn’t apply and they can do all sorts of fun things with your kid’s privacy and digital footprint.

As I said, the private school we selected is low tech in the early years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP lost me at handwriting. Seriously? Next you are going to complain they don't teach kids how to darn their socks.

We want them to be comfortable with technology because technology is the future. Handwriting is dead. I am glad for enrichment activities that the school provides out of the common core whether it's trips, or art or STEM.

You want Handwriting? Geeze

Handwriting helps to imprint a feel for language - particularly cursive instruction. If you want Junior to grow up to be a SysAdmin, then by all means send them to a large DMV public school. (Former disgruntled MCPS parent who could say ditto to all of the critiques about FCPS. Our schools are targets for corporate sales. I saw leadership at Discovery Communications salivate over top 15 school budgets - hence the launch of Discovery Education twenty years ago.

Here’s the piece on cursive

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain

I work as a sysadmin and plan to steer my kids into the field and spend all of my egregious sysadmin salary on a private ES which is one step from Amish in terms of the electronics available.

What school do you mind sharing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+ the obvious and unethical self-dealing with preferred vendors for spirit wear, after school activities, etc.

yes! Exactly

All organized by PTAs and therefore firewalled from FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP lost me at handwriting. Seriously? Next you are going to complain they don't teach kids how to darn their socks.

We want them to be comfortable with technology because technology is the future. Handwriting is dead. I am glad for enrichment activities that the school provides out of the common core whether it's trips, or art or STEM.

You want Handwriting? Geeze

Handwriting helps to imprint a feel for language - particularly cursive instruction. If you want Junior to grow up to be a SysAdmin, then by all means send them to a large DMV public school. (Former disgruntled MCPS parent who could say ditto to all of the critiques about FCPS. Our schools are targets for corporate sales. I saw leadership at Discovery Communications salivate over top 15 school budgets - hence the launch of Discovery Education twenty years ago.

Here’s the piece on cursive

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain

So is painting and other art. But it's also impracticable for work and school. You don't understand how much more elevated collaborative docs are in school and how much more they contribute to learning.
Try doing everything you do on paper and get back to us.Don't hold kids back because you don't understand this.

This is pure BS. So called collaborative docs mean that each student is doing a fraction of the work each could be doing on his or her own. If it's working so great for you, why are they barely literate, generally incapable of writing coherent sentences and unable to do basic arithmetic by the time they get to us in high school?
We're ranked towards the bottom of the OECD on PISA.

--HS teacher

[Anonymous]

I was so sad the day my Kindergartener told me that her teacher didn’t read them books, she watched other people read her books on the TV.
- why are there no textbooks or workbooks?
- why does my kindergartner spend hours on her laptop daily
-get rid of all these weird apps and paid consultants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP lost me at handwriting. Seriously? Next you are going to complain they don't teach kids how to darn their socks.

We want them to be comfortable with technology because technology is the future. Handwriting is dead. I am glad for enrichment activities that the school provides out of the common core whether it's trips, or art or STEM.

You want Handwriting? Geeze

Handwriting helps to imprint a feel for language - particularly cursive instruction. If you want Junior to grow up to be a SysAdmin, then by all means send them to a large DMV public school. (Former disgruntled MCPS parent who could say ditto to all of the critiques about FCPS. Our schools are targets for corporate sales. I saw leadership at Discovery Communications salivate over top 15 school budgets - hence the launch of Discovery Education twenty years ago.

Here’s the piece on cursive

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain

So is painting and other art. But it's also impracticable for work and school. You don't understand how much more elevated collaborative docs are in school and how much more they contribute to learning.
Try doing everything you do on paper and get back to us.Don't hold kids back because you don't understand this.

This is pure BS. So called collaborative docs mean that each student is doing a fraction of the work each could be doing on his or her own. If it's working so great for you, why are they barely literate, generally incapable of writing coherent sentences and unable to do basic arithmetic by the time they get to us in high school?
We're ranked towards the bottom of the OECD on PISA.

--HS teacher

Well, dinosaur, it's not just for collaboration. I don’t accept anything unless it's a doc. That way I can see the history, the time involved, revisions, and apparent plagiarism. If it is collaborative, I can see who contributed what, and when. Then these docs are saved in files for me and for them.

You just don't understand how to use it.
Kids are hardly illiterate. I work in many schools all over the DMV, and I am not seeing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate computer programs. I want textbooks and homework on paper.

Amen, I don’t know when textbooks were phased out but every year I am disappointed there are none.

Textbook management is a nightmare. Also most of them are poorly written with numerous errors and school systems can't afford to keep replacing them. The reality is it is horrible to depend upon them. The companies don't make enough money to make it worth their while to publish a good product. This is backwards.

Then the school system should publish their own textbooks. This is what many virtual schools do including K12. Also most textbooks for homeschoolers are very well written. At the very least, students should be sent home workbooks for the year.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP lost me at handwriting. Seriously? Next you are going to complain they don't teach kids how to darn their socks.

We want them to be comfortable with technology because technology is the future. Handwriting is dead. I am glad for enrichment activities that the school provides out of the common core whether it's trips, or art or STEM.

You want Handwriting? Geeze

Handwriting helps to imprint a feel for language - particularly cursive instruction. If you want Junior to grow up to be a SysAdmin, then by all means send them to a large DMV public school. (Former disgruntled MCPS parent who could say ditto to all of the critiques about FCPS. Our schools are targets for corporate sales. I saw leadership at Discovery Communications salivate over top 15 school budgets - hence the launch of Discovery Education twenty years ago.

Here’s the piece on cursive

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202010/why-cursive-handwriting-is-good-your-brain

I work as a sysadmin and plan to steer my kids into the field and spend all of my egregious sysadmin salary on a private ES which is one step from Amish in terms of the electronics available.

What school do you mind sharing?

Dominion Christian. Generally the Classical Christian schools tend to be low tech, especially at the ES level. Waldorf and Montessori are also good bets, if your child would better fit in with one of those pedagogies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was so sad the day my Kindergartener told me that her teacher didn’t read them books, she watched other people read her books on the TV.
- why are there no textbooks or workbooks?
- why does my kindergartner spend hours on her laptop daily
-get rid of all these weird apps and paid consultants

I’m a kinder teacher and this is very sad. Her teacher is lazy.

I had to use a few videos like this during Covid because we couldn’t use the rug (even last year!!!) but I tried to use my document camera instead and read a book myself. One of my goals this year was to read every book aloud because I planned ahead. I’ve mostly just used my on for non fiction books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was so sad the day my Kindergartener told me that her teacher didn’t read them books, she watched other people read her books on the TV.
- why are there no textbooks or workbooks?
- why does my kindergartner spend hours on her laptop daily
-get rid of all these weird apps and paid consultants

I’m a kinder teacher and this is very sad. Her teacher is lazy.

I had to use a few videos like this during Covid because we couldn’t use the rug (even last year!!!) but I tried to use my document camera instead and read a book myself. One of my goals this year was to read every book aloud because I planned ahead. I’ve mostly just used my on for non fiction books.

Our K teachers use tech sparingly. Usually it is a 20 min station and that is it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was so sad the day my Kindergartener told me that her teacher didn’t read them books, she watched other people read her books on the TV.
- why are there no textbooks or workbooks?
- why does my kindergartner spend hours on her laptop daily
-get rid of all these weird apps and paid consultants

I’m a kinder teacher and this is very sad. Her teacher is lazy.

I had to use a few videos like this during Covid because we couldn’t use the rug (even last year!!!) but I tried to use my document camera instead and read a book myself. One of my goals this year was to read every book aloud because I planned ahead. I’ve mostly just used my on for non fiction books.

NP. My kids' teachers are using much less tech this year than last year but still more than 2019. I hope that next year will be even better. My kids are in upper elementary and middle school, fwiw. I agree that teacher doesn't sound great. Sad for those kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate computer programs. I want textbooks and homework on paper.

Amen, I don’t know when textbooks were phased out but every year I am disappointed there are none.

Textbook management is a nightmare. Also most of them are poorly written with numerous errors and school systems can't afford to keep replacing them. The reality is it is horrible to depend upon them. The companies don't make enough money to make it worth their while to publish a good product. This is backwards.

Then the school system should publish their own textbooks. This is what many virtual schools do including K12. Also most textbooks for homeschoolers are very well written. At the very least, students should be sent home workbooks for the year.

And the minute an FCPS-sourced text brings up something you even remotely dispute, you’ll be out here screaming about that. And then there’s the costs of periodic revision, replacement, etc. you really might wanna think this idea through a little better.