Wanna Be’s, Has Been’s, and Never Were’s

I am so damn tired of this refrain: “We got to spend more money on education.”

Bullshit…

On a local and national basis, we’re inundated with stories quoting the “authorities” telling us that it’s just a matter of tax dollars between Einstein and an idiot.

Bullshit…here in Glynn County we spend almost $10,000 per year PER PUPIL on “education.”

We’re already raising a high priced generation of dumb asses, and throwing more money at these so called “educators” and the pampered “students” that choose to use up the oxygen and occupy the space in the “classrooms” is, in my considered Redneck opinion, just going to produce a higher cost dumb ass idiot in the end.

Then I have to ruin my day reading this story about some rocket scientist at MIT that actually believes that children will learn more if they each just have access to the internet.

One man in Boston has a plan that he hopes will bridge the world's gaping digital divide - and quickly. The visionary is Nicholas Negroponte, director of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his idea consists of a new kind of laptop computer that will cost just $100 (£57) to buy.

It will also be a little different in design from the sleek machines some of us in the west have learned to love or covet. It will be foldable in different ways, encased in bump-proof rubber and will include a hand-crank to give it power in those corners of the globe where electricity supply is patchy.

The first prototype of the machine should be ready by November and Mr Negroponte - who was one of the first prophets of the internet before most of us understood the word - hopes to put them into production next year.

In fact, he expects to churn out about 15 million of them within one year, shipping most of them at first to children in Brazil, Egypt, Thailand and South Africa.

Describing the unusual design of his sub-laptop yesterday, Mr Negroponte insisted that it would "have to be absolutely indestructible". The mission is to create a tool that children almost anywhere can use and can easily carry between their classrooms and their homes. For that reason, for instance, the AC adaptor cable will double as a shoulder strap.

You see, I have a problem with this whole scenario. Who is going to PAY for the INTERNET ACCESS for all of these hand cranked “organ grinder” PC’s that the Zulu tribal elders will be using to teach their kids microeconomics in sub-Saharan Africa?

Can you say Y-O-U and M-E?

What the “authorities” and “educators” seem to keep forgetting is that while PC’s and the Internet are sleek and glamorous; old, dusty, tried and true paperback books with words like “see Spot run” and “2+2=4” are still the easiest, cheapest ways to educate kids.

After all, it got ME to where I are today…