Technology and the Hierarchy of Needs

Gregg Behr, the executive director of the Pittsburgh-based Grable Foundation, has supported schools, museums, libraries, after-school programs, to support STEM, STEAM, maker education, computer science, and other “modern learning” approaches. Even with all of his success with his foundation’s focus on equity, Behr said, “$13 million a year in grants is nowhere near enough to address the full extent of such gaps or the racism and poverty that lead some students to get far fewer opportunities than others.” This quote is in response to an article by Education Week in which they discussed the connectivity challenges, teacher training, and hardware gaps which exists in two Pittsburgh schools, 10 miles away, but a world apart.

One of the biggest take away from this article is the stark contrast of what is happening in South Fayette Schools, compared to Sto Rox Schools. At South Fayette students are learning about artificial intelligence, coding, and robotics. They are preparing their students to be able to solve the toughest challenges they may face in the future; even bringing their superintendent to tears, overwhelmed with joy and esteem of the work of their students and teachers to get to this point. South Fayette School is about preparing students to compete with the global economy.

Ten miles away at Sto Rox high school, there is minimal technology available for students and teachers. Resources like smart boards for the classroom, a lack of hardware and just establishing connectivity in the school, is the reality at Sto Rox. Not to mention the threat of neighborhood violence and other “fires” the school constantly has to put out, putting school technology low on the list of their concerns. Sto Rox is preparing their kids for a 9-5, not for competition to solve the world’s toughest challenges.

The issues at Sto Rox is not about technology in my opinion. I agree with Gregg Behr, that funding technology will not fix the issues at Sto Rox, the issues are deep like racism and poverty. When schools are in survival mode, they have to work on the basic needs before they can climb higher on the latter to deal with things like technology innovation which seems incompatible with the realities of their students disadvantaged futures at Sto Rox High. Once they can climb higher upon their hierarchy of needs they can make it to self actualization, where Fayette has the luxury to sit.