Little whippersnappers these days

Back in MY day we didn't need no fancy iPads to learn our letters and numbers. We went to Kindergarten and colored, did worksheets, took a nap and played Musical Chairs or Duck, Duck, Goose. Apparently the Kindergarten students in Auburn, Maine are above all that tomfoolery, though. See?

Now, I was one of the only kids, if not THE only one, in my Kindergarten class who could read. I remember my teacher being distinctly shocked when I started working on my worksheet before she read the directions out loud. She asked how I knew what to do and I said, "I read it." She made me read it aloud, then told me to wait til everyone started in the future. Arguably, not the best way to handle an advanced kid, but it was what it was. And honestly, kids should have a better start than that when they enter Kindergarten, but this was the early 1980s.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like my kids don't have a lot of electronic learning toys. They do. "Laptops," Tag readers, Leapster 2s with educational games. But you don't just hand a kid a toy and say, "Figure it out, kiddo, see ya." With the toys and the work I've done with them, the older two are doing really very well. They can both write, read and do math and Spanish, all to varying degrees of success. The wee one isn't quite old enough for such scholarly pursuits yet.

Technology is important, this is true. However, should a $475 (and that's with a DISCOUNT for the school system) iPad 2 really be provided for each Kindergartener to learn his/her letters and numbers, the stated use for the devices? Heck, my school district, which looks worse by the day (especially with busing issues) actually says kids should ALREADY be able to recite the letters and numbers to at least 10 before entering Kindergarten, among other skills. My kids are way past that already, at 5 and 3. Even if the Auburn school district doesn't hold kids to the same standards, which it would seem they do NOT, I've taught my kids the skills they have without an iPad, version 1 or 2. They don't really do much on the desktop, either...mainly just playing regular games for experience moving the mouse and potty training bribes. :D

It's just like that "Your Baby Can Read" bullcrap that teaches kids sight recognition, which does absolutely no good in helping them figure out new, unfamiliar words. Phonics isn't perfect, but it works a helluva lot better than that. People have become so consumed with one-upping everyone else that they've lost sight of what's important. Parents want their kids potty trained by a year, "reading" before that time as well, and playing alone with the latest grown folks' electronic gadget as soon as they're old enough to keep it out of their mouths. What happened to kids being kids?

On a final note, it really grinds my gears that the Auburn superintendent Tom Morrill (who is retiring in June, BTW) called the iPad 2 "more important than books." Really? Yeah, an iPad 2 can hold a lot more information than one or even 100 books can. But look at the writing of people who were exposed to the Internet and texting AFTER they presumably learned proper English in school, younger people in particular. It's horrendous. And the more immersed in technology we become, the more I think of Stream of Consciousness and I hope there's always someone left in the world who can still read actual books.