Bluffmaster said:
Its called evolution. It wasn't a long time ago when you were writing letters to your loved ones and posting it through post boxes, then email happened and it changed the way you interacted. It won't take a long time for paper and pen to get obsolete. If the schools are preparing our young ones for the future, whats wrong in it? I strongly believe that one should adapt with technology.
Making them adept with tech should be encouraged, and I'm all for it. Pretty sure students studying in schools like this will be having desktops and laptops at home. Wanna make them adept with tech ? Give them a consignment to do. Ask them to make a PPT presentation. Tell them to write on a topic with proper notations, spellings, capitalization, spacing etc. Tell them to make a drawing in Paint. If they are a bit older, ask them to make a dummy website on any of the WYSIWYG web builders available on the net. Still a bit older, challenge them with exciting programs. I would have understood had they made it compulsory to get a netbook, but an iPad ? Seriously ? So using an iPad is the forefront of tech now ? I have an iPad bought in March this year. After the initial one month, all it is used is to play Angry Birds and occasionally to draw some pics/art when I'm getting very bored. I don't understand the benefit of an iPad worth 40k over a netbook worth 20k, specially in a school setting.
As far as writing letters is concerned, well I still do. My cousins (bros & sis) were born and brought up in the UK. Both my bros are consultant doctors and sis is the GM of The Bank of Tokyo, London Branch. All of them are quite well versed in tech, in some areas more than me. And while the bulk of the conversation between us happens via email, we still write letters on special occasions. My bday is coming up in 3 weeks and I just got a beautiful card from my sis wishing me alongwith a hand written letter. No amount of technological evolution can replace personalization. That letter to me is more important than any gift she could have bought me as it shows she went through the effort to think and write for me.
My granny (who died in Jan this year) used to live with my uncles in UK. While she was tech paralyzed, she used to make sure she writes us a letter every 2-3 months. And she insisted on us doing the same. I still remember we sent a reply to her letter as an email and boy, was she pissed ! Mom and dad made sure I wrote at least a paragraph in the letters we used to send her every now and then. Now when she's no more, we still hang on to her letters. Re-reading them brings such a big smile to our faces.
Can you feel the same about emails, however personal they are ?
Letter writing, in fact writing in general, is losing it's significance. I feel terribly ashamed seeing how not only teens, but college goers & grad students struggle in letter & application writing. It's just pathetic.
Sorry if it's a long post.
And mind you, that the iPads are a compulsion and not an option for these students.
These school authorities must be beaten up for making everything compulsory.
hyeah:
