Laptops vs. Textbooks

 By Kelly Bridgewater

Covid-19.

Lord, please hope we are past this horrible thing. Amen.

 

BUT,

I know majority of students had to do on-line classes this past year. Teachers had no idea what they were doing. Students had no idea what the teachers wanted. Teachers did the bare minimum to earn their paychecks. (yes, I know there were some that went above and beyond. I congratulate you for actually doing your job in the middle of the insanity.)

 

Everything was on the computer.

 

Lessons. Questions. Submitting assignments.

 

I know with the internet practically everywhere school just assumed that this would be an easy answer to all the problems having face-to-face instruction. But it was not.

 

We live in the middle of nowhere. If the sun is shining, wind blowing, storming, cloudy, or snowing, there is no internet at my house. Sometimes my boys would submit their assignments and the teachers would not receive it. But of course, as a teacher, you couldn’t reach out to the student before the assignment was due to allow them to know this. Or give them a little later to try to send it again. No, just assign an F. No explanation. No grace period.  So their grades would suffer.

 

Is the right way to be teaching our students to learn?

 

Heck, no!!!

 

What is wrong with having an actual textbook?

www.freepik.com

 

You know, those big books with tons of words, explanations, examples, and charts. So when the students were actually sent home, they would have all their assignments right in front of them. Yes, the teacher could post a lesson, but if they were still struggling, they would have a textbook to refer to.

 

Students, today, don’t even know how to take notes. When a teacher is explaining things to help with homework, they don’t know what to copy down. What is important. They don’t know how to study.

 

What a disservice we are actually doing to this generation?

 

Stop being a hover generation and actually make them toughen up. They need to face the hard realities of life. They don’t need to keep living in a bubble where everything is nice and safe. Life is full of disappointments and the only way to get far is through hard work. Employees need to understand this. Students need to understand this. PARENTS need to understand this.

 

Their kids do not need to sign up for every sport and every event at school. They need to be a kid.

 

We need to expect more from this generation instead of accepting less and less with every new child that is born.

 

As an older member of society, (I’m in my thirties.) I don’t believe we are doing a service to our futures or the future of our country. We are slowing ruining our way of life forever.

 

We need to stop this before it is too late.

 

Does anyone agree with me?