Elteto.net

Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, MA, decides that books are just not all the rage these days.

Even if we exercise a level of calm and refuse our urge to call the situation Fahrenheit 451, the plan endorsed by headmaster James Tracy is nothing short of madness. His vision of replacing books with an electronic library is nothing short of disservice to history, literature, literacy and education.

The budget needed to give all students the same level of access to the same amount of books (which would be impossible, given that many titles are not available in electronic format or are large-sized art titles that cannot be satisfactorily represented on a digital display) would be enormous.

Then there is the subject of being able to flip through a variety of books in the same section, easily discovering related books on a subject. Knowledge is categorized in a fairly organized system in libraries, and it is vital that students understand the importance of research and the relationship of subjects to each other.

Mr. Tracy talks about how books and scrolls are "outdated technology". Interesting, as the lessons learned from human history are very well represented in those outdated pieces of technology. Throwing out books is a certain way to help students never find the wisdom amassed over the ages.

Mr. Tracy's plans include distributing 18 electronic book readers to students. Really? An entire 18? The rest of the students apparenty can feed their technology-induced attention deficit disorder by surfing the web, watching funny videos and messaging friends on the side while using a research computer to access the electronic library.