20160126 (modern promise)

Study what you want, when you want, where you want, for as long as you want, or go play.
Cheap, easy, fun. From preschool through Med School or Ph.D. What went wrong?

One of the texts I used in my

Brief stay in graduate school

In psychology at Indiana was

Drafted as an illustration of 

Programmed Learning after

The principles known at that

Time of how learning occurred.

The early Pavlovian model of

Relating a stimulus to a reflexive

Response—the classic dog

Learning to salivate to the

Sound of a bell—could not 

Be adapted to the book’s

Parameters, so they left that 

Method out. The behaviorist

Model—classic dog exhibits

Behavior when rewarded—

Allowed for some illustration.

You, Reader, were the dog.

Learning was the knowledge

Of behaviorist principles

You acquired as you proceeded

Through the book. Whether you

Noticed or not, you were being

Rewarded by compliments as

You proceeded. If you didn’t

Demonstrate you had learned 

The concept, you were instructed

To return to an earlier page and

Could get the compliment only

After relearning showed you

Had gotten the concept—that

Is finally given the right  answer.

Then, competent fellow, you

Were allowed to continue. Sounds

Dumb as dirt as I describe it but

It actually had been used in 

Military training manuals for

Years. The notion, though, was

To revolutionize education, make

It independent of a teacher,

Allow students to proceed at

Their own pace, and serve

In future years in powerful

Audio/Visual formats on

Computer screens all over

The world.  Mind you what

Foresight—these were years 

Before computer screens were

Filled with Pong and Radio

Shack was a major supplier.

Aside from the death of the 

Schoolhouse as a building and

Ending the tyranny of teachers’

Unions, the new method

Promised education for all

At reduced costs. Imagine

Sequestering your child in

A quiet corner of the house

Where his/her sight and hearing

Are magically captive to

Fascinating subjects presented

In superior formats and he comes

Away a master of the topics.

I remember these were the

Promises of cable-TV in schools

A couple decades earlier. You

Remember how well that turned out.

But unlike the cable model

Ritual computer learning has

Triumphed though not exactly as

We sought. Today our children 

Cannot be torn away from their

Screens. The artificial adventures

Of military slaughter, gangland

Mayhem, pornography, and

Teenage social development

Are far more powerful instructors

Than any bells and whistles we

Could have conceived to help

Them differentiate species,

Conjugate verbs, or speculate

On the meaning of the great

White whale. Where o where

Did we go wrong?

c. J.S.Manista, 2016