Some time ago, I read that a significant number of Silicon Valley executives had enrolled their children in schools which were not big users of educational technology. Interesting, somewhat like the management of Coca-Cola telling their kids to lay off the soft drinks.

Fast forward to a January 2, 2016 “Wall Street Journal” article by Naomi Schaefer Riley, “Teach your Children Well: unhook them from Technology.” It describes the use in an increasing number of charter schools of the Waldorf educational methodology, which includes “low technology, delayed formal reading instruction, extensive instruction in art and science, and physical exercises to break up their lessons.”

The interesting part from the standpoint of today’s iDevice-dominated world is the assertion that “teachers … can immediately tell who has been using devices at home. ‘We see it in their behavioral problems, their (in)ability to reason, their cognitive skills, even their (in)ability to communicate with other people.’”

With iDevices in the vast majority of homes, including those of children eligible for Title I funding, “the real digital divide is between parents who realize the harmful effects of technology on their children and try to limit them, and those who don’t.”

Food for thought, especially given the historical lack of correlation between computer penetration and academic improvement.

http://bobhowittbooks.com/?page_id=22

Because there is a growing desire to cease evaluating a person based on his or her body of work, I am suggesting a new evaluative tool, the Rules of Normative Thinking and Behavior (RNTB).

A panel of college students at highly selective schools, aided by their history professors, should be charged with the responsibility of creating this list of acceptable thoughts and actions. The composition of said panel would be determined using an algorithm that incorporates disproportionate weight for those sectors of the population who heretofore have been under-empowered. Following the creation of RNTB, the next step would be a Google search of all entries which include the names of individuals.

Each person’s thoughts and actions would be tested according to the RNTB rubric. If he or she receives a negative checkmark on at least one part of the RNTB, this is what must happen with any reference to that transgressing individual:

*all relevant books must be burned

*all statues, plaques, and commemorative displays must be demolished

*all CDs or DVDs must be melted

*all website entries must be deleted

Apps will be created to troll the universe of intellectual property in all iDevices and their physical counterparts to ascertain whether any violations of the above requirements are taking place.

Those individuals who have voiced appropriate adverse thoughts about people who are on the RNTB list must be cleansed themselves, because having any opinion is considered to be evidence of thinking, and minds would be at risk of being changed.

The list of names subject to historical cleansing would be open-ended. If the RNTB is amended by the designated panel, then additional names can be added at any time. Note that once an individual is cleansed, there is no way to become un-cleansed.

The Rules of Normative Thinking and Behavior will allow the envisioned new society to unfold in an unfettered fashion. Clarity of what is appropriate will be maximized, which will have the added benefit of reducing stress: a win-win for all of us.

http://Bobhowittbooks.com/?page_id=22