Readers Write: No-computer classrooms, immigration, compliments and group screams

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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When I began to write this reflection on Maureen Mulvaney’s intelligent commentary (“I’m ditching computers in my public school classroom this year,” Strib Voices, Aug. 20) about limiting the use of computers in her high school classroom, my computer’s Word program offered the option to “describe what you would like to write” so that Microsoft Copilot could help (create a phony letter).

I taught history at Miami University for over 30 years, and in the last decade nearly every student brought a computer to class. My classes of 30 to 40 were interactive, a question-and-answer format in which the students had to reflect on the readings that they had done for the day.

Many were not taking notes or focusing on the task at hand. Instead, they had their heads buried in their computers searching the assigned reading to find an answer (it was too late) or had up some other completely unrelated website. It was not only distracting for them but for the students sitting behind.

In my last two years teaching, I asked students not to bring their computers to class. There was a significant increase in participation and a marked improvement in their test grades. Studies show that students comprehend better when they put pencil to paper. I also had them write essay tests in a blue book, the old examination booklet of yesteryear (I was the last history professor at Miami to use them then). It was nearly impossible to cheat.

Of course there are many good uses of computers, such as the easy availability of resources. But educators have gone too far in extolling the benefits of computer learning, especially in the humanities. With artificial intelligence tools, the only learning going on is how to find keywords to create a desired essay. Most importantly, as Mulvaney points out, students deprive themselves of enjoying the stories and the beauty of the written word coming from the pen of an F. Scott Fitzgerald, Toni Morrison or William Manchester. We are creating a society without a shared culture and humans without humanity.

I applaud Mulvaney’s experiment with a computer-free classroom this school year. Over my 40-year career teaching science, I witnessed the same decline in critical and abstract thinking skills in too many of my students. Computer technology was introduced with great fanfare and the promise of an educational renaissance. That tech promise has been seriously flawed from the very beginning.

May Mulvaney and her students have a challenging, robust, productive school year. Please write another commentary next June with your analysis and observations during a school year of a computer-free classroom.

Bill Holden, Minneapolis

On a recent Saturday my wife and I shopped at two separate Sam’s Club stores in the surrounding Twin Cities area. We pushed our carts with, between, around and among people who don’t look like us or talk like us. I don’t have a clue if the youngsters who were jogging and dodging — or the adults with them — were legal residents or asylum seekers, and, frankly, I don’t need to know. But what I can tell you is that because of their language and their appearance they likely were guests in this state and this nation. And, they were participating.

Recent analyses have appeared in articles in the Star Tribune (“Even Trump’s favorite economist says the U.S. needs immigration,” Aug. 17, and “Deportations loom large over Willmar,” Aug. 24) and elsewhere about what this state and nation could be losing because of the current administration’s draconian policies and actions against immigrants. In terms of the economy, the data are not pro-growth.

Until their spines were recently load tested, we didn’t know what some of our elected officials actually stood for. Rhetoric is one thing but actions (and inactions) reveal loyalties. We’ve elected many who are so malleable and fluid — and sycophantic— they respond like air-filled, dancing tube-puppets. As Trump supplies the air, they contort their ethics, positions and actions in the hopes that Trump won’t pull the plug. They’ve misplaced their fear. We voters control each plug, and we can’t let them forget it.

If they really believe “it’s the economy, stupid,” it appears they are getting it wrong. They are out of touch, and if the economy is as important to them as they say it is, they’d raise their spindly, whippy arms in Congress to vote against crummy, misdirected policies.

To get back in touch, they should get out of their silos and maybe visit a big box store on a weekend to see that hardworking, ethical, honest immigrants are participating in this American experiment, one cart (or more) at a time.

Keith Kuhn, St. Michael

Reading about 9-year-old Ethan Wargo opening up a compliment stand took me happily back to last Christmas (“Compliments are complimentary,” Aug. 19). There were many gifts given during that time, but the best gift was the simplest: Sitting around our Christmas dinner table with family, we each took our name card from the table and put it in a Christmas stocking and then drew a name from it. We then went around the table giving that person an oral compliment as a gift. The idea came from my granddaughter’s third-grade classroom. They all gave written compliments to their classmates in envelopes made in art class. How perfect to emulate that at home! It could be done at family gatherings or any group get-together and at any age.

Ann Biggar, Minneapolis

The Aug. 19 edition told of a 9-year-old boy who doles out compliments to strangers by the side of the road for free. What a nice gesture!

Inside the A section on the same day, reporters profiled a group that gathers to challenge their vocal cords (“They all scream to vent steam”). Healthy all the way around? I’m not quite sure!

What I’d like to see are two more powerful options: a group that engages in nothing but belly laughs and one that engages in crying and bawling your eyes out! Both are cathartic and actually might assist in healing traumas experienced in life.

Expressing our emotions in groups might just be the ticket for confirmation and connection after all!

Thank you for the wonderful article about the Twin Cities scream club. My compliments to the writer who handled this very funny subject with aplomb. Obtaining a psychologist to opine that screaming in a group is more therapeutic than screaming alone, plus the photos of the screamers standing behind a metal fence, were priceless.