Nancie Atwell, a life-long educator and literacy expert who runs the impressive Center for Teaching and Learning in Maine, wants to fill classrooms with bookcases and volumes of rich and enticing collections of literature. If Atwell had unlimited funding she’d buy enough books to fill all the classrooms of the world. If she had influence beyond her dreams, she would direct the educational decision-makers of the world to “build sturdy bookshelves.”
Too bad schools today seem more interested in gifting students with technology devices rather than stockpiling classrooms with literary masterpieces.
A quick scan of the news turns up scores of stories about kindergarten students receiving deliveries of new iPads and entire school districts handing out devices to every student walking the halls while spending millions on expanded wireless networks. In the Bethel school district in Washington, for example, every high school student was given an iPad at the start of this school year with the longer-term goal of giving all 18,000-plus students in the district one. This is great for Apple, but it turns out it’s not always so great for students.
Atwell, who has experimented with both electronic devices and books for reading, told an audience at the recent Clinton Global Initiative that books are a far better investment than the latest technology. Atwell, who was awarded the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize for 2015, gave an extraordinary speech on the transformative impact of being in the presence of great books:
Multiple studies have documented the impact of classroom libraries: there are more books in the classrooms of high-achieving schools, and more students who read frequently. . . . Children from lower-income homes especially need rich and extensive collections of books in their school. And they need actual books, not electronic devices that store books. Real books don’t require electricity or batteries. They survive rapid changes in technology and digital storage. While my students did experiment with e-readers and Kindles, all of them reverted to paper books. They said they missed the sense of geography they enjoy with a real book, where they’re aware of how many pages the author has left to resolve the plot, and when they can flip back with ease to clear up a confusion. They remember more of what they read—and even experience healthier sleep patterns—when they curl up at night with a real book instead of a bright screen.
Real books give you options; they give you the chance to develop preferences; they are the literary equivalent of smelling salts—a wakeup shot to the mind. Plenty of parents will tell you that their kids can read “all the books they want” on their electronic devices but I’ve yet to have a single child tell me that they are reading a book on their device when asked what they are engaged with on the small screen.
Atwell also sees the presence of books as a socializing opportunity for students—classmates see what book you are carrying around and ask whether you like it and what the plot is, and friends can trade books and make suggestions. When you are on a device learning (and reading) are shrouded. Atwell notes:
The covers of books function as badges that students bring with them to class. Without them, children miss out on the camaraderie—the questions, advice, opinions, and literary gossip—that develops within a community of book lovers. It’s hard to reap the social benefits of reading when everyone is carrying around a grey screen.
Atwell’s push for more books in schools comes at a time when school libraries are disappearing and school purchases of iPads are growing. While the benefits of technology for STEM programs and older students cannot be totally dismissed, the promises of technology, especially for the youngest of students and for the goals of improved literacy, have never lived up to the billing of technology manufacturers. Apple, the manufacturer of the iPad, adds some educational applications and resources for teachers and proponents (such as those in the Bethel school district) the argue that an iPad “can contain most content needed by a student without need for Wifi access, which many students lack at home.”
But consider a recent student editorial in USA Today about 1,200 high school students who received iPads and found “the raging excitement” significantly dropped “as students are learning they are far more trouble than they’re worth.” A Pittsburgh-area student who received one of the iPads offered this assessment:
[T]here’s the extreme frustration that comes with using an iPad during class (thank you to the teachers who give the option of using paper). “Just use Notability! It’s a great app you can do everything on it!” That is the biggest lie I’ve ever heard. Watching the mass confusion take over my class when we all tried to peer edit on Notability was comical, if you could even download the essays from Google Drive to Notability. . . . Have you ever tried to type out a 4-5 page essay double spaced on Google Documents on your iPad? It’s time consuming, annoying, and frustrating. It’s a good thing we have so few windows here at the high school. Otherwise there would be a steady stream of iPads flying out of them.
Instructional fads come and go, Atwell reminds us, “but human needs and desires remain constant.” And while there is no question that the devices of the present and the future will change the way we read, think, and learn, the written word on the printed page—and the greatest books of every age—will surely outlast them all. When some dusty book on a forgotten bookshelf finds its way into the hands of a young girl, her mind and heart will be ignited by the stories and secrets hidden inside its printed covers.
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