Rick Perry and his war against book learnin'

[marmar]

from the Dallas Morning News:



Rick Perry and his war against book learnin'
Thu, Apr 08, 2010 |

Michael Landauer/Editor


As a fellow Texas Aggie, I had to bang my head against a wall when I read this quote from our esteemed governor:

"I don't see any reason in the world why we need to have textbooks in Texas in the next four years."

Now, the context for this quote is that he favors moving to computer technology. Whew. So this isn't an Aggie joke ...

As for the merits of the proposal, the governor needs to think this through. I have kept two of my favorite books from high school A.P. history class. They cost $30 each. Since then, I have had three desktop computers, two laptops and 10 cellphones. Textbooks -- and the information in them -- does not change nearly as much as our technology does.

The idea seems reasonable on its face, and I fully support the increased use of computers in the classroom, but science, math, chemistry, physics, literature and even history -- despite the efforts of the Texas State Board of Education -- do not change significantly or often. Textbooks are more than capable of keeping up. And they represent a much smarter and far more conservative investment.


http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/04/rick-perry-and-1.html

[BootinUp]

1. Its already happened here

in GA. My son doesn't have text books apparently. Fuck, I wish I could afford to send him to a better school.

[Initech]

2. That is one place where you would *HUGELY* benefit from having an iPad

or iPad-like device - rather than carrying 50 pounds worth of textbooks, all you'd need to carry is an iPad loaded with the texts you need on it.