John Stossel's "Stupid in America"

Recently, I came across news reporter John Stossel's FOX TV special "Stupid in America.” The special focuses on the struggling schools of America and gives a firsthand look at exactly what is going on in today’s schools. Throughout the show, Stossel investigates many current educational issues. He questions the idea of tenure and the effects it is having on teachers and their students, as well as examines and compares the results being achieved by charter schools throughout the country in comparison to traditional public schools, amongst other issues.
The above clip is only a small portion of the entire special, however I found it to be one of the most telling clips from the show. Within this clip John Stossel visits a few charter schools across America, all of which are achieving high levels of academic student success with, according to Success Charter Network Founder & CEO Eva Moskowitz, anywhere between $4,000 and $6,000 less funding per child than what is being given to traditional public schools. The immediately obvious difference of school environment between these charter schools and traditional public schools is astounding. At 02:51, one young student states that while “reading is hard work”, it’s “rockin’ awesome,” and the enthusiasm doesn’t stop there. Stossel goes on to interview teachers of these charter schools, many of which teach longer days than any traditional school teacher, some days until 5pm. The teachers themselves express a selflessness and desire for their students’ success in the learning process.
The relevance of this special to integrating technology across the curriculum is especially evident at 04:16 in the clip. The use of technology within these classrooms surpasses the commonality in most schools of teachers having students use technologies in their learning process; in these schools technology is used heavily in the process of teaching. In one charter school teachers use ear pieces during lessons so that they can be “coached” by their superiors, in this case the principal, in order to have a more successful lesson. Teachers are fed questions which perhaps they didn’t think to ask, or may be told to try to reach out to certain students within the classroom who the teacher himself or herself does not notice is losing interest. Personally, I was shocked to see such technological innovation. The idea is so simple yet seems to be extremely successful to teachers. What does this mean for the future of education? As a future teacher I am unsure where I stand in regards to this particular use of technology in the classroom. I don’t underestimate the benefits of using this technology, however I think that this type of technology use would meet much resistance from teachers.