R & R

I was just telling my daughter it’s not surprising I like her to read. The three R’s, – reading, writing and ‘rithmetic – are rapidly being overtaken in the common lexicon by R & R, rest and relaxation. I spend a lot of time either reading or writing. I use my three R’s all the time, even during R & R.

Do we need to learn our three R’s, when we have kindle, google and i-pads to give us all the answers and to write for us? Some of my daughter’s school friends take their i-pod touches to school, keep them in their trays and play on them in their spare time. Each classroom also has its own smartboard and i-pad. No-one thinks this is a bad idea, because any time anyone needs any answers, they can just look them up, which makes them great learning tools.

Are we simply treating these learning resources like vast libraries? Undoubtedly, by those who develop and refine them, that is how their use is most creatively envisaged, but perhaps an unintended consequence is that pupils begin to take their learning into their own hands. If they don’t want to listen to the teacher, there are probably lots of subtle ways to bypass their authority. Will teachers become redundant?

Perhaps it is new concerns like these which are leading the mainstream media to flag up the dangers of creeping dependence and overuse, on youth programmes such as “Newsround”. I doubt, though, that a few targeted features on the dangers of x-box will withstand the tidal wave of new, innovative and exciting technology.

R&R is what I do. I read and write for fun, and recently it has also netted me a few bucks, so I’m not complaining. And I seem to remember that when I was my daughter’s age, I spent much of my time reading either ‘Peanuts’ or Tintin books. It was only later, at the start of adolescence, that reading actual books with no pictures became a fixture. Seline is at that tantalising age where it could go either way, so I wait and watch, and hope that my compulsion to read and write will also inform her learning.