Academic achievement Quote by Peter K. Fallon
““It is a truism today, in this highly technologically-developed culture, that students need technical computer skills. Equally truistic (and, not incidentally, true) is that the workplace has become highly technological. Even more truistic – and far more disturbing – are the shifts in education over the last two decades as public elementary schools, public and private high schools, and colleges and universities have invested scores of billions of dollars on “digital infrastructure,” computers, monitors and printers, “smart classrooms,” all to “meet the demands” of this new technological workplace. "We won’t dwell on the fact – an inconvenient truth? – that those technological investments have coincided with a decline in American reading behaviors, in reading and reading comprehension scores, in overall academic achievement, in the phenomenon – all too familiar to us in academia – of “grade inflation,” in an alarming collapse of our students’ understanding of their own history (to say nothing of the history of the rest of the world), rising ignorance of world and American geography, with an abandonment of the idea of objectivity, and with an increasingly subjective, even solipsistic, emphasis on personal experience. Ignore all this. Or, if we find it impossible to ignore, then let’s blame the teachers...””
About This Quote
Source Essay: “The Digital Dilemma in Education”, 2020
Highlights how massive tech investments in schools have coincided with declining reading, historical knowledge, and critical thinking, suggesting a trade‑off between tech and foundational literacy.
In simple terms: Tech focus in schools may harm reading and critical thinking.
Balance tech use with strong literacy programs.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- classrooms
- policy making
- teacher training
- reading programs
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How can schools integrate tech without sacrificing literacy?
- What measures restore critical thinking?
Technology alone cannot replace deep reading practice.