One thing I’ve learned from this period is just how bad school is. Nearly every innovation over the last generation has made it worse.

Take textbooks. My kids have none - just haphazard sheets sent by email, so no parent complains her kid forgot it. /1

But textbooks were curated. They didn’t contain ungrammatical examples. And because you couldn’t write on them, they also forced kids into a habit of writing that they no longer have. Yet every study shows writing by hand is better for the mind and for learning than typing. /2

Smartboards alllow teachers to pull up a video whenever the mood strikes. Problem is, this is worse for learning too. A test: ask your kid to summarize what they learned from a video vs written material. Difference in retention is dramatic. /3

iPads - most of the apps are designed to make the app look successful, secondarily to promote learning. They “succeed” by leading your kid to they answer, so the app does “well.” Again, simple questions reveal how little kids actually know/learn.

My benchmark: Torah (Bible). /4

It’s the one area where my elementary school kids’ rabbis have allowed no innovation. There is a text, they learn much by rote, constant repetition. No fancy app. In the 4th grade, you can hand them any Bible, in Hebrew, and they can translate it for you. /5

Same goes for the ancient commentaries in ancient script. And here’s the thing: it’s their favorite subject, year after year. All 3 kids. Because learning turns out to be pretty satisfying.

Shame schools have mostly given up on it. We may be paying the price for decades. /6