The paper of record alerts us that the geniuses we have put in charge of our children’s education seem to be in the throes of a brilliant epiphany about the electronic generation: if you give them laptops, they will learn. Well, duh.
“Educators” are flocking in droves to a little school district in North Carolina where elementary, middle, and high schoolers armed with computers are busy exploding some of the most cherished myths of the teachers’ unions. Class sizes in Mooresville, N.C., have gotten larger; teachers have been laid off; the district is 100th out of 115 in the state in per-student spending. And yet . . . miracle of miracles, in the past three years, since the district provided laptops to 4th through 12th graders, the graduation rate has gone from 80 percent to 91 percent; science, math and reading proficiency rates have risen from 73 percent to 88 percent; attendance is up and dropout rates have declined.