Thursday, February 23, 2006

a comment and a question

I read Laurie's post about elementary students having to spend a great deal of time on the computer anymore and I am also greatly disturbed by this. I did my student teaching this past fall and I noticed that the use of computers with every age level is emphasized more than reading books. The one school I was at didn't even use textbooks, in fact the principal frowned upon them. I had to plan lessons each week that revolved around computers and technology, but I was not supposed to use any sort of textbook. Since when has a book been perceived as bad teaching, as opposed to computer usage as effective teaching? What a shame!! Children should be reading and playing outside, rather than spending hours in front of a computer screen.

Moving on to something completely different. Could someone please explain to me more clearly what Dreyfus means by the Public? I am especially confused by this passage: "For levelling properly to come about a phantom must first be provided, its spirit, a monstrous abstraction, an all-encompassing something that is a nothing, a mirage--this phantom is the public."

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