Mr. Warlick's Post

Week One

When I was reading Mr. Warlick’s blog post he was discussing how he was listening to his regular podcast by Steve Hargadon. Mr. Hargadon was talking about whether or not political parties were discussing education. His response was “NO!” and that got Mr Warlick thinking “Should we really expect them to when they aren’t educators?” He states that education is a sore subject and that politicians do not talk about it if they do not have to. He finds this outrageous because they are “amateurs” what do they know what we need in the classroom?

My response to him was they do not know. They discuss the topics that they know will get out votes. As I said to Mr. Warlick I have a one-year-old son and I do not want him getting his education in the 49th worst educational state. Something needs to be done about our educational system! There is no reason what so ever that China and India should be trampling us with knowledge. It is also because we put so many restrictions on what can and cannot be taught. Some students do not even know what Darwin’s Theory is until high school. This is because it tramples on the first Amendment. Education is important and I know that Mr. Warlick and me are not the only ones that think it.

Week Two

In Dr. Warlick’s second post that he mentions that in the New York Times newspaper there was a quote from Arne Duncan declaring a war on paper textbooks. Dr. Warlick asks the question if we are declaring war on the wrong item. He proclaims that it is not what the children carry in and out of the classroom, but the experiences they get out of it. He wants Mr. Duncan not to declare war on paper, but to declare war on anything that doesn’t help our students learn.

I agreed with him! I posted that even though there is a convenience of the tablets and IPods, textbooks are still very useful. They will never lose your data or stop running if the battery gets to low. On the other hand technology is just plain out handy you can have multiple books on a small, or medium hand sized device. I love being able to just carry my laptop or tablet around and have the world at my fingertips. I explained that it does not matter what we think is better. We are not the ones learning the material. It is up to the students to choose which is better for them.