A reader sent me a wonderful editorial from a newspaper in Idaho. I liked it because it called out State Superintendent Tom Luna for his self-promoting campaign to replace teachers with online instruction. Idaho is a red state where there is not a lot of diversity of opinion, but whether you are red or blue, you should have common sense when it comes to education. The crucial ingredients in education are always the same: the student, the family, the teacher, the school, the curriculum, and the community. When all those factors work together, students tend to get a good solid education. When they don’t, education suffers and students don’t learn much.
Technology can’t take the place of any of the essential ingredients. It is certainly a delightful thing to have computers and smart boards in the classroom. Teachers do amazing things with computers, and students can use them for research and individual projects. But no computer can motivate a student who is unmotivated. Or take the place of a family who makes sure that the student is well fed and healthy. Or replace a teacher who knows how to teach and loves her subject. Or take the place of a community that puts a high value on education. Or compensate for a school that lacks adequate resources and a strong curriculum and good leadership.
All these elements make a difference.
Tom Luna is now on the Romney education team. He has a long history of collaboration with software corporations. The children of Idaho would be better served if he built collaboration with teachers and parents and communities, not the online corporations that helped to put him in office.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have maintained for almost 30 years that any teacher that can be replaced by a computer should be.
However, damn few can be. If one looks at he history of technology you will find claims for the “modern taking picture” replacing teachers.
For any complex problem there is always a simple solution but that solution is inevitably wrong.
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As a resident of Idaho, as a student teacher in Idaho and as the parent of a child attending a public school in Idaho, there was a great deal of outrage directed at Luna and his political allies when these “reforms” were first proposed. Remember, according to Mr. Luna everything was hunkydory in the land of Idaho’s educational system during his campaign to remain in office. Within just a few days of being re-elected, Luna was hit with the disturbing realization that teachers needed to lose their collective bargaining rights, every high school student needed a laptop supplied by their district, students needed to generate so many class units in online classes and only those venders on an approved list could supply the on-line requirements…oh, and the fact that those approved venders had supplied a large chunk of Luna’s campaign funds had nothing at all to do with this sudden epiphany and anybody who said otherwise was a “union thug”.
Phone calls were made in the tens of thousands, letters to the editor of all the papers were written and published. Rallies were staged and attended. Over flow crowds attended and spoke against these “reforms” at the public hearings. The overwhelming sentiment from the public was negative. We the people spoke up and the state legislature said “so what”…and pushed it through anyway. On a fast track, because apparently the situation was so bad that only immediate action could rein in all the “bad teachers” and indiscriminate over spending in the public schools.
Believe me, there was diversity of opinion. Unfortunately, the majority voice of parents and educators were effectively ignored.
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I am an elementary education teacher in Idaho. I have taught both 2nd and 4th grades, and have been in the profession for 20 years. As far as technology is concerned, I keep my young students away from it as much as possible. Instead, I teach them to be writers, mathematical thinkers, and great readers. I engage them and encourage them, and yes, I demand the best from them. When my students leave my classroom they are able to write paragraphs, letters, and stories with interesting words, proper format, and almost perfect punctuation-and most importantly they leave my room loving to write. I help them become lost in novels and learn from well-written stories. I show them how to find out information (without Google) and how to learn how to spell words (without Spell Check). They figure out how important math is in their lives, and they learn to enjoy being mathematical thinkers. They learn why education is important and how they will use it in their lives. They find meaning in learning; power in knowledge.
I am confident that when my students use that fancy typewriter, fancy dictionary, and fancy encyclopedia, called a computer, they will be able to produce amazing things from it/with it because they have the foundation that will allow them to do so.
I have my masters degree in technology, and I am very good at all things technology. But, I am only as good as I am because I learned to read, write, think, and do math from a good teacher, good parents, and good grandparents.
Luna’s online education plan will cost a lot more than money. It will cost our students a real education. But, how would he understand that since he has never been a teacher.
By they way, can you check into Apangea. It’s a program that Luna pushes in Idaho. It is an online math program that, in my opinion, is very poorly put together. Anyway, I wondered if that company gave him money too..or maybe he owns a piece of it. He sure is pushing it and promoting it and I wonder for whose benefit. Has he heard of the free Khan academy?-an excellent online math tutoring program.
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Are Luna and Rick Perry related? Just wondering.
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