There is no clear, commanding body of evidence that students' sustained use of multimedia machines, the Internet, word processing, spreadsheets and other popular applications has any impact on academic achievement.'

Teaching high school, in addition to knowing one's subject matter thoroughly and being able to convey it to others, requires the grit of a long-distance runner, the stamina of a boxer going 15 rounds, the temperament of a juggler and the street smarts of a three-card monte dealer.

There is no clear, commanding body of evidence that students' sustained use of multimedia machines, the Internet, word processing, spreadsheets and other popular applications has any impact on academic achievement.'

I'm allergic to over-promising. I'm allergic to exaggeration, because I've been in schools for a large part of my life, and I still go to schools. What I want is realistic, evidence-based kinds of things that know the history of efforts to individualize instruction and why they flop before, so you can have a much smarter approach to reforming schools, to improve what goes on in classrooms.