Just visited the school I retired from four years ago to say hi and check out the new renovations.
Whiteboards everywhere!
(er, sorry, “vertical non-permanent surfaces“)
While I appreciate the philosophy of getting the kids up and working things out for themselves, I’m really wondering about the massive amounts of plastic waste in the form of depleted whiteboard markers. Personally, I hated whiteboards when it was mostly just me using one, because I was constantly running out of markers. I can’t imagine how they cope now that all the students are using them, as well.
This is clearly an “out of sight, out of mind” issue for most folks, and I’m sure the petroplastics industry is totally fine with finding new ways to make money. But it’s incredibly shortsighted.
I know all about the drawbacks of chalk, but those inconveniences seem pretty minimal compared to the waste generated by whiteboards.
Is there a third low-tech option out there that allows for fine detail (so no drawing in sand 😄) without the waste? Why did people stop using chalkboards? The dust?
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