[jjulius]

>and anyway character development is the purview of parents not schools. public education should teach specific academic material and nothing more.

Public education needs tools. This is a tool. The article literally calls it "a teacher's aid".

[anigbrowl]

Americans love teacher's aids, and school districts drop big money on what is often gimmickry. I think this is part of why American educational outcomes at the k-12 level are often poor. Other countries don't have special teacher's editions of the textbook with answer keys, because teachers don't need them.

Universal free school meals will do far more to improve learning and social outcomes than more techno-gimmickry. I think blackboards are generally still better for most elementary school classrooms than hugely expensive digital displays because blackboards are something kids understand, there's no technology gap between seeing it and being able to use it.

When I started school a long time ago, we had little desks with a flip up lid that had a tiny blackboard in it, and bits of chalk to draw with. At a later stage teachers produced giant set-squares, protractors, and compasses designed to hold chalk instead of pencil lead. You don't need elaborate tools for a lot of foundational concepts.

Honestly, this country seems bend on turning education into fast food, with teachers being mere machine operators with more and more 'education product' experience and less and less knowledge of the subject they're supposed to be teaching. You can easily take what you learned working in a McDonalds and be productive in a KFC, but it doesn't mean you're a good cook.