Is Missouri Rolling Back Classroom Technology on Purpose?

It is common in the 21^st century to embrace the hubris of thinking we have evolved beyond what our ancestors were capable of. I’ve been arguing for years that this is not the case. We have tech luxuries that they never had or dreamed of, but those that came before us could do so much that we have lost the ability to do.

Elementary students in the 1960s

Have you seen anyone under 40 put pen to paper? Can you read what they wrote? You can’t, they can’t, nobody can. Our grandparents wrote beautifully. Try to help your child with their math homework? You can’t. We’ve all lived the “that’s not the way we’ve been shown” situation. Math doesn’t math the way it did when we were in school. Today’s students need to be able to complete problems and show their work in a way we never did. Figure it out in your head? That’s not a thing to the youth.

Without an emphasis, handwriting has declined

Now with the advent of AI, if the generations don’t purposefully stay connected to the old ways, they will be helpless without the internet (their phones). The state of Missouri has acted to bring back those old ways of learning in the elementary grades.

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There is new legislation that would require elementary students to have to do 70% of their assignments with pencil and paper, including a hard limit on digital learning to 45 minutes per day. House Bill 2230 would also require kindergarten through fifth grades to have tangible printed textbooks on hand for the students, and includes a return to teaching cursive.

Tangible textbooks would create a new school district expense

Some say this will bring extra costs for the school districts (and it will), should it pass. The legislation is in its early stages and could be altered before an initial vote.