Have Abacus Will Travel

I have written before of the the right wings veiled attempts to privatize public education. I have also pointed out that while they are trying to privatize our schools without the public knowing, occasionally they let some things slip and let us know what they are after.

As an education consultant/reformer stated in a recent NY Times article “Let’s hope the fiscal crisis doesn’t get better too soon. It’ll slow down reform.”

Well the right wing is at it again. Far right WPRI hack Sunny Schubert let us in on the mind of the right wing and their true feelings about education. In her recent column for the Herald-Independent, she points out that Winnequah needs Smart Boards.

Winnequah School needs Smart Boards.

Don’t ask me why. I looked them up on Google and I’m still not sure what they are (but then, I’m old and dumb – just ask my kids!)

Apparently, they’re boards that teachers and students can write on, either directly or via computer. The various descriptions of Smart Boards say that they “invite active collaboration” and help students produce work that is “dynamic and contingent.” (Whatever that means.)

Naturally, they are not cheap. They cost $3,600 apiece, and Winnequah needs 15 of them.

So here is Sunny Schubert, who has said

However, I do believe that teachers unions are the single biggest impediment to improving our school system.

Sunny who wants to “reform education” and believes that teachers unions are the single biggest impediment to improving our school system has and has never heard of a smart board. What do smart boards do?

1) the Smart Board allows users to work with large amounts of information, 2) it offers an information space that invites active collaboration, and 3) the work produced is often “dynamic and contingent”

Basically Smart Boards(and similar versions) are the latest technology available to schools to help increase students learning activities. In the year 2012, many schools still do not really have computers in the classroom and have to go a computer lab a few times a week to teach the children computers(which I am thinking they might need to know eventually).

Now back to Sunny(who is speaking for the right wing privateers at this point). Sunny knows teachers unions are bad, yet has no idea what happens in the classroom, what it would take to improve the education experience of our children, what actual “tools” teachers need for success, what the latest technologies are and except for “zach” and Jeff Knutson has she ever even talked to a teacher?

How about the rest of the privatize movement? How many teachers do you know? Yet she does know, we need to break the teacher’s unions and make sure that the teachers do not have a seat at the table when trying to “reform” education. It should be left up to the Policy wonks of places like WPRI who do not even know that we no longer use the Abacus.