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Steve Jobs: ‘What’s wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology’

When Steve speaks, I listen. He has(had) a great perspective on things and I think he provides a valuable perspective to issues. I think he has some very interesting perspectives on education as evidenced in this Wired interview from 1996.

Here’s an excerpt from the Wired interview:

"I used to think that technology could help education. I’ve probably spearheaded giving away more computer equipment to schools than anybody else on the planet. But I’ve had to come to the inevitable conclusion that the problem is not one that technology can hope to solve. What’s wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a dent.

It’s a political problem. The problems are sociopolitical. The problems are unions. You plot the growth of the NEA [National Education Association] and the dropping of SAT scores, and they’re inversely proportional. The problems are unions in the schools. The problem is bureaucracy.

As Wired pointed out, with Apple’s forthcoming push into education, the bureaucracies of teacher’s unions Jobs spoke of will likely be replaced with political issues facing state curriculum boards and standards requirements."

I think he has a point, the bureaucracies and the over politicization of education has become the downfall of current education practices. The lack of creativity in the classroom will hurt us in the future.

Wired Link
9-5 Mac Article