I’m guessing that the “Short Attention Span Theater” of reading on the internet makes it impossible for the little dears to concentrate for very long, but really, one or two pages? That is truly pathetic.

I’d like to see teachers advance to e-notebook checks, too.

Then, instead of having to save every stupid piece of paper they gave you (like busy work crosswords!), you could just mail them your note-files from the class.

We could do away with the practice of giving a kid who aced all the tests a ‘c’ because she didn’t save her dittos!

Giving every student a pile of textbooks is too expensive, Emmerson says.

No more heavy, outdated textbooks, and a lot of services on the web are free too!

Hmmm…Sounds like your child’ school is ill equipped to handle the computers. So…why did they give require your child to have one?

My son is in private school and we were required to buy a tablet computer. The kids were also required to take tech to learn how to use them and before school started they had orientation where they learned the basics including HOW TO TAKE NOTES ON A TABLET computer. Hmmmm…

In addition, some of the textbooks are on CD rom which is what all schools should do. Those CDs are loaded on the computer. This way the student (and parent) knows the homework assignment as well as what was covered in class when they were out.

One of these days the public school administrators will learn there are better ways to use computers. I will not see that happen for my children which is why both were pulled from public schools including the supposed #24 school in the country. (OOOH the way public high schools are ranked is so misleading!!! But that is a topic for another day!)

Good look. Explore what schools who understand how to incorporate the technology are doing with computers in their classrooms. Maybe you can educate the staff at your child’s school and make this a better experience since they are required to have computers. Giving a child technology in a non-user friendly manner is a complete waste of tax-payer money. I hope you have made the press aware of this waste in your school system. In today’s economic times those dollars can ill afford to be wasted.

Good luck!

1) When she is sick, she does not have a textbook to go read the material that was covered in class.

2) She cannot consult a textbook if she has to look up how to do a math problem, or part of a multi-step problem, or such other knowledge that needs reviewing to answer a problem. I see this to an even bigger problem down the road, especially in algebra, where you get the answers to the even problems to help you.

3) Instead of assigning problems from a textbook, the teachers just make photocopies of all assignments and send them home.

4) Students will read and explore their textbook such as the short essays, pictures, and biographies that publishers put in them. Even just a glance helps students learn about things or just realize that there are many more ideas to be explored.

5) As her parent, I don’t have a clue about what is covered in the classroom.

That’s just a couple of the problems I find. On top of it all, my child is not learning how to takes notes at all.

Actually it sounds like a good idea. I too can’t believe how big and heavy some books are, or how kids are expected to carry them around. Lockers are unavailable to most kids in NYC, and it’s very tough for them sometimes.