Letters: Invest in teachers, not iPads

Re “An electronic leg up for U.S. students,” Opinion, July 19

I’ve got a better idea than giving our students yet more hardware and Internet connectivity: Invest in students by investing in teachers.

How? Take all that money spent on technology and instead cut class size to 18 students. Build teacher mentorship, so that folks joining the teaching profession will be brought into the fold naturally. Do whatever possible to make working conditions better for teachers.

Believe me, new computers will not make our children better students; iPads will only give them more distractions. As a teacher, I have had terrific students from developing nations who learned for years in remote villages. But these students had good thinking and study skills —and a committed teacher who cared.

It’s not the fancy hardware; it’s the quality of the teaching. Give every public school student an iPad and watch those students’ precious time slip away into that same black hole that has been colonizing their attention.

K.F. Lisovsky

Venice

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