Computers Replace Teachers

A couple of months ago I asked my 12-year-old son what his favorite classes were at his middle school in Los Gatos, which is part of Campbell Union School District.

The classes he chose as his favorites actually involved educators teaching live and giving him interesting thoughtful assignments where there was some clustering and thinking outside of the box.

By clustering, I mean some of the kids who learn faster might get a harder assignment once in a while. He's a smart kid and if the teacher can give him a little more to do, or something harder, he is more energized by the lesson and subject.

Public school caters to the slower kids so the smart kids tend to be bored and de-energized by the repetitive and easy lessons. A few progressive school systems, for example, in Cupertino have done a better job with the advanced kids but those examples are few and far between.

The class he did not like or thought was mostly a waste of time was science class. Here's how he describes it: "The teacher just puts us on the computer and gives us a worksheet every day. He usually doesn't teach. When I question the teacher about this, he says, 'It doesn't matter because science is not on the Star test this year.' "

By the way, I really like this teacher. I know he cares about my son. I'm guessing he's getting this "computer learning" advisement from the principal based on comments she has said in meetings with parents.

I have to add that they just went to four-days-long science camp so that's a positive thing that happened in this subject.

Then, my friend who has a child in the same grade as my son mentioned off hand that her child and all of the classmates in advanced math were being taught by a computer.

The U.S. is way behind other countries in math. Everyone knows this. Putting the advanced kids on a computer to learn math is not going to help us be more competitive in this subject.

How will the U.S. produce quality engineers to work at all of these awesome Silicon Valley high tech companies if we don't teach quality math in U.S. schools? And people born in the U.S. complain that the companies are hiring too many non U.S. workers in technology? How can they not with the way U.S. public schools are teaching our children math and science?

Shouldn't the smart kids get a real live teacher who discusses math concepts with them? Shouldn't they be allowed to "work ahead" if they are able so that they can compete with the kids from Harker and Mitty when they all apply to Stanford and MIT later?

Did you know that my babysitter, a Mitty High School graduate, said that Mitty offers students calculus II and statistics? It's my understanding that Campbell Union High School District does not offer these classes and says, "You are on your own when it comes to advanced math" if kids are ahead in 10th or 11th grade. And this is a "Silicon Valley" school district? As the saying goes, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Another thing this parent said was that the computer program her child was using in middle school instead of a live math teacher was designed for K-5 so it was much lower level than advanced.

I did not have time to investigate this fully because I work at a 9-5 job, but this is extraordinarily disturbing to me and I trust her that this is happening.

By the way, this mom works as a successful engineer at a large brand name IT company. She wants her child to have a quality learning environment so she can be successful to when she enters the work world.

The main problem is that young kids are being tossed on the computer instead of getting taught by a live teacher and it's being positioned as a very advanced and positive thing by the principal. It doesn't appear to be extra learning. It looks like a teacher replacement.

By the way, tossing a child on the computer to learn math and science, in my opinion, actually breaks the contract we have with the school. The contract is the "Campbell Union School District Parent Handbook of Official Notices" and parents and students are required to sign it.

Page 3 says "Rights and Responsibilities of Teachers. To conduct a well-planned and effective classroom program." Classroom to me means live teaching.

It also says, administrators need "to promote leadership that will establish, and promote good teaching and effective learning." 

If the computer program is doing most of the teaching of math and science in these particular classrooms, then what are we paying the teachers for? To give the kids the computer password?

Now for some reason, my son and a couple of others his age who were bored with their own "age-assigned" math class got lucky and tested into higher grade math.

So they are now a few sixth-graders in eighth-grade math but with a live teacher who is really good at what she does. My son is getting a 106 percent in the class and the teacher calls him "ahead" so he's doing just fine. I thank the administrators for not putting him on the computer to learn math. I'd be horrified if they did that.

By the way, he also attends Russian School of Mathematics of San Jose where he takes advanced second-year geometry and algebra. He has live, proactive and engaging teachers there who are really high quality and hands on. He gets As and enjoys it. He only spends an hour or so a week on homework. They teach him to solve really hard problems and how to think strategically.

Although most of the public school kids will graduate way behind several other countries and most private school kids in math, my son won't because of Russian School and because of a few of his wonderful middle school teachers who actually do their jobs.

Additionally, his middle school offers students an excellent computers and technology class where they learn the keyboard and how to do presentations and videos. This class is taught by a live teacher and is ultra awesome for preparing the kids for the work world. But no, that's not taught by a computer. Why is that?

I am just one humble opinion though. Here are my questions for you.

• What do you think of online learning versus a live teacher?
• Is it appropriate to teach our 12-year-olds key subjects like math and science using mostly a computer?
• Our tax dollars are paying for teacher salaries. Is it fair to not actually teach in the classroom but instead use a computer program?
• Should teachers get parents' approval before using a computer instead of a teacher? (FYI, no one asked me before they started teaching my son science using a computer program.)