Miss Regina - Thoughts On Education
February 18, 2004
Teachers have had their salaries frozen this year, I have been battling to get an old carpet (that’s been flooded twice) replaced for five years, class sizes are way to high for consistent, meaningful learning to take place and I don’t know of one teacher that hasn’t used his/her own money for classroom supplies. So last week when I heard that $300,000 was to be spent on technology in our school (and many others as I understand), I was a bit perplexed. It turns out that the $300,000 does not include computers but will be used to update the “infrastructure”. What exactly does that mean? Some fancy wiring (most would say excessive), a router and a server. My mind raced with questions. Is this the best way to spend $300,000 in a K-5 elementary school? Is it necessary? What about the budget woes in the school district? What about wireless technology? I believe the money is coming from the last bond issue passed (November 2003) and I wonder if voters are really aware of how their money is (or isn’t) being spent. Regardless of where the money is coming from, I can’t help but wonder where it’s going? I thought, as I often do, about Maslow’s hierarchy. Shouldn’t we take care of the most basic needs in a school, in turn nourishing the most fundamental needs of children, before spending large sums of money on things that will most likely be obsolete by the time the very children using them reach high school. This, of course, got me thinking about the role of technology in our schools and it was then I decided to save such thoughts for another day lest my brain explode.
I’d really like to hear what people have to say about all this, please feel free to e-mail your thoughts or opinions.
Take good care,