Distractive Technology

Today, I bumped into an article from the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html

For those who have more important things to do than read six pages of a misguided defense of our schools, let me summarize it:
Technology is taking students’ time from schoolwork. In one noteworthy example, a bright student is jeopardizing his dream of becoming a filmmaker by learning filmmaking skills rather than Latin.

I agree that a girl should not send 27,000 texts in a month, but I disagree with a major component of the text. This article inadvertently promotes the anti-educational values that essentially define our schools. The reporter and those commenting in response are so concerned with the problems that students have with schoolwork that they are critical of a student with a strong enough desire to learn that he has taken the initiative to teach himself. We tear apart the hopes and dreams of someone because he is learning instead of doing his homework.

I actually bumped into this article by reading someone’s comments who decided to blame parents for these problems. That means that this student’s parents were apparently wrong to invest $2,000 to enable him to learn.

I frequently discuss the war between schooling and education. Although it was not intentional, the article clearly shows how these two concepts interfere with each other. Hopefully, some readers will see the obvious. In this war, education could certainly use some allies.