Monday, January 20, 2014

Failure of "One Laptop Per Child"

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/09/its_time_to_cal.html




For those of you who never heard of "One Laptop Per Child", it was going to bring technology to third world countires.  The poorest of the poor would have a laptop.  Wifi, camera, sound, viedo, music, word processing, spreadsheets, servers and the list went on and on.  Bring those children into the 21th Century.  Problem, it didn't work.  They were hoping to boost the test scores of these children, (sound familiar?)  It turned out to be a failure on mulitple levels.

The concept was good. But, no thought was given to the long term results. Just like GMO products forced upon the American people.

I don't know how many children were subjected to "One Laptop Per Child", but it did affect an entire generation. 

Just like "No Child Left Behind" and the new "Common Core"

We already know that "No Child Left Behind" is an utter failure.  Teaching to the slowest kid in the class.  Letting the smart ones become bored.  When you have children bored in school, what happens?  The kids drop out...  A known result ignored by scholars.  Then there are Drugs, Phones, MP3 players, video games, bullies, jocks.  All affect the learning curve.  There is a place for computers in school.  but as "One Laptop Per Child" has shown, these children with computers, have lost ground, not gained it.

If any of you would like to know a secret,   Back when there was a one room school house, and all the grades were in the same room.  A teacher taught children how to write in block letters and cursive, spell, do math and read.  Most of those children who were in those one room schools and made it to the eight grade had an education greater than those who graduate today.  How many of our children graduate today without being able to read, do a checkbook, simple math, forget about finding sqft. use their brain.  Schools today teach children how to take a test, not how to learn.   Like that old saying, give a man a fish, he eats for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.  Same goes for education.  Teach a child to pass a test and you get him through another year, Teach him how to learn, and he learns for a lifetime.


Of course this brings us back to "One Laptop Per Child".  A bunch of people had a thought that if we can build a computer so cheap that almost anyone in the world could afford it.  Except for the people of the USA.  You can purchase them but, you can't have one, it's for the poor children of the third world countries.

On a side note, I wonder how many of these laptops wound up in the hands of terrorists?

There is one thing in common in all the failures, in America.  Government.  Government in Education, Government in Health care, Everything Government touches, dies.  There is an old fable about that, but it currently slips my mind.

Put all that in your pipe and smoke it.

If you think I am full of crap, then just follow Alice down the rabbit hole, because you no longer live in reality.  You live in a Fantasy land of your own making.  I hope I get to be there when it all comes crashing down on you, so I can say "Told you so, A------".