In its search to bolster the faltering public school system, California has given new life to a quote attributed (with some variations) to Mark Twain: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” On 8 June, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger highlighted plans to transition the state’s schools from traditional textbooks to online teaching aides and digital texts. The plan, according to the governor’s website, will give students “a new way to access textbooks that is less expensive, easier and lighter.” In addition to freeing students from the onerous burden of carrying books, the initiative will give educators the opportunity to create more flexible, modular teaching units and update course readings in a more timely manner.
The proposed solution brings something old and something new to the table. During the Great Depression, districts quickly found themselves forced to slash programs as parents and children became more reliant on the services provided by schools. “The sword that hangs over education, University of Wisconsin President Glenn Frank glumly noted in 1933, “is the sword of imperative retrenchment forged in the fires of an irrational depression. The peril lies not so much in the existence of the sword as in the way we may wield it.” Many schools used the sword to cut textbook funding, halting the purchase of new materials. Paradoxically, old-line Progressives who had advocated education reform in the 19101 and 1920s often led this charge. Reformers saw a freeze in textbook spending as a short-term sacrifice–a means of stretching school budgets through what many first hoped would be a short recession. This logic seems to play a large part in the California plan, which a state press release describes as a “Proposal To Save Money And Stretch Resources During These Difficult Times.”
On a brighter note, the California plan follows in the footsteps of successful efforts to expand education through the creative use of technology. Most famously, Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop per Child builds on the idea that access to technology can level educational, economic, and political barriers–a belief shared by the developers of the Hole-in-the-Wall education system. Other programs, such as the Digital Clubhouse Network, use new media to expand the scope of the classroom.
These programs–and their underlying principles–have great promise, but the style of experiential learning requires skilled, devoted teachers. While the flexibility created by using online resources in lieu of traditional textbooks could open new horizons for children in California, the proposed system will appear on the heels of a bitter feud between the state’s teachers and governor, problems with classroom size, and a continuing debate about curriculum standards, any of which could inhibit the program’s effectiveness.