Jammin' Cellphones, Schools Prove They are Lost in the Past

Am I the only dinosaur who remembers calculators being confiscated in classrooms? 

The controversy over a cell phone jammer at a Vancouver Island school reminds me once again about how fantastically-long it takes the school system to adapt to reality.

An utterly-convinced teacher told me, "you won't always have access to a calculator," which, in the age of solar cells and microchips, sounds like he'd never made it out of the era of slide rules. 

I've seen a slide rule. At an auction. 

My mom had to learn how to use one. My kids can't guess what field the term applies to... maybe playground design?

And so we move on...

With nano-technology coming -- soon-- it seems to me the schools (and the people in them) can use the upcoming years to see if they can catch up to Y2K, so maybe by the time the internet is accessible by blinking or something at least they can deal with a cell phone the size of a deck of cards.

One day in the not-to-distant-past, it will become possible for students to access more-information in 5 minutes than the school library can hold, on a piece of hardware that can be readily concealed in a bikini. 

The idea that the people in a school should live as-if this is not the every day reality at life is.. naive. Do I mean 'naive'? Maybe I mean 'ludicrous'? Or 'massively delusional'?

The idea that the school system can hold back the tide is... pervasive.