Thanks for visiting us for EnT 83! We are veering heavily towards the tech aspect of the Ed non-Tech with this episode, including speaking to some obsolete if not downright anachronistic technologies which have been part of the public education endeavor in past and recent years!

Here is the least obsolete YouTube video we are capable of at this exact moment in time! #ednontech

Audio of an indeterminate shelf life contained hereabouts! #ednontech

During our discussion we went in lots of different directions!

Reviewing the recording, I think our chat regarding penmanship and the personal qualities of handwritten letters stands out the most for me as the most personally resonant part of this episode. Definitely, I rely on handwritten notes to internalize anything important. Digital communication formats, for all their potential persistence, tend to feel less personal and more ephemeral than handwritten messages. And so, to that end, I’ve written a letter to you, the EnT listener and/or viewer and/or reader, and embedded it here digitally! This feels like an approach which I may use more often!

Whereby any Game of mere Skill, such as Bowling, Coyting, Cloyshcayls, Half Bowl, Tennis, or the like, is declared an unlawful Game, or which enacts any Penalty for playing at any such Game of Skill as aforesaid, or which enacts any Penalty for lacking Bows or Arrows…

Peel, R. (1845). An Act to Amend the Law Concerning Games and Wagers. 8 & 9 Vict., C. 109.

In common with other branches of education, penmanship demands thorough elementary instruction. Three things are indispensable to the success of a class in writing :

It is of absolute importance that the teacher should be educated in the science of penmanship. I

Payson, J. (1877). Penmanship. New England Journal of Education, 6(12), 135-136.

Three fundamentals marked the first educational curriculum: (1) catching fish with the bare hands, (2) clubbing tiny horses to death, and (3) frightening saber-toothed tigers with torches.

By studying those three subjects in their “schools” the stone-age people got along fairly well until there came a changed condition caused by the movement of ice from the north, the forerunner of the ice age.

Peddiwell, J. A. (1939). (Harold Benjamin). The Saber-Tooth Curriculum. New York: McCraw-Hill Book Co.

Doug: This concept of obsolescence was so well known 85 years ago that satirical books were being published on the subject.

If my grandparents walked into a typical classroom today, they would know exactly what to do: Sit at their desks, be quiet, and listen to the teacher.

Wolk, S. (2017). Educating students for an outdated world. Phi Delta Kappan, 99(2), 46-52.

The tremendous advancement in science and technology leads to new knowledge and skills, necessitating timely revision of existing curriculums to avoid instances where learners gain obsolete skills that lack global competitiveness.

Law, M. Y. (2022). A review of curriculum change and innovation for higher education. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 10(2), 16.

Things we used to teach:

 Training for selected obsolete professions:

Mandatory

Technology has made much of the curriculum obsolete. How can we as educators reduce that impact on learners?

The benefits of it…

Feudalism, Baby!

I say, and when it drops, oh, you gonna feel it
Know what you were doing’s wrong
I say, when it drop, oh, you gonna feel it
Know what you were doing’s wrong #ednontech