ipadRemember the good ol’ days, when kindergartners learned to read and write and add numbers together without the aid of an iPad? It seems like only yesterday ...

A public school proposal in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, to purchase 150 iPads for 5-year-olds to use in class is causing some parents to question if this is the best use of already limited funds.

Catherine Adair has children in school at Briggs Elementary. She tells FOX 25, "We have no Vice Principal. We have a very bare bones staff. I don't think kindergartners having iPads is the best expenditure of taxpayer money."

iPads are an awesome bit of technology. I love mine. My kids love it too, and I’ve stocked it with a number of fun learning apps for them. But it is a perk, not a necessity, and I didn’t ask taxpayers to fund it, and no teachers lost their jobs at its expense.

It would be wonderful to live in a world where educational funding knew no limits, and we could have a realistic discussion about the benefits of providing iPads to short people who include ‘nose-picking’ on their list of favorite activities. But there is a finite amount of money to be spent on the future of our country, and iPads shouldn’t be in the budget.

Our kids need great teachers, not iPads. Arne Duncan, the US Education Secretary, claims that up to 82 percent of schools could fail this year. Why are we even talking about iPads? If having the latest technology in public elementary schools led to higher performing students, why have testing scores steadily declined over the years? 

There weren’t any computer labs on campuses in the 1950s.

iPads are great tools, but they are not the solution to an educational system in decline. Let’s spend our money wisely so that our kids can get an actual education, which will help them to get a great job someday where they can work hard and save up enough money to buy their own iPads.

 

Image via Mads Boedker/Flickr