School of the future

Annoyed librarian is, well, annoyed:

... "School of the Future" in Philadelphia, PA ... doesn't have any books, and doesn't want any! That's for schools of the past! They also don't have any pens and paper, just laptops, thanks to Bill Gates. Not having any books or pens or paper is supposed somehow to help the underprivileged children of Philadelphia. ...
In the Philadelphia school, all the classrooms look like corporate conference rooms, and the students all work on "practical problems," which I guess means they take "consumer math" instead of algebra and write Powerpoint presentations instead of essays. If this is the "school of the future," God help us all.

The people in education are so open-minded that their brains fall out. Every few years there is a new craze that is going to solve the problems in education. Once upon a time it was open classrooms. Tht didn't work. Neither did small class size, a nostrum much loved by the teachers' unions. (More jobs for teachers--it makes sense. To them.) Then there is the campaign to pay more money to the knuckleheads now in charge, in the hopes that if you pay them better they will perform better. Sure they will! Right after I get nominated for Miss America or when pigs fly, whatever comes first.