Sometime in the 22nd century, Mrs. Evans walks her fourth-grade class into a large room of a museum.

"What's all this?" asks Diana."Looks boring," says Michael. "Can we keep going?"Mrs. Evans smiles. "Children, these are called books. Your grandparents might still have one or two up in their attic. This is how people used to read before we had computers. They'd pick up a book and turn the pages between two covers.""How long would it take to read a book?" asks Julie."It depends," answers Mrs. Evans. "A book with 400 pages could take someone weeks to read, but not all at once of course.""Boring!" chirps Michael. "If anything I have to read takes more than five minutes, I ain't doing it."Mrs. Evan laughs. "That reminds me. When we get back to school, all of you will have to read a 30-second summary of 'Huckleberry Finn' and then we'll watch the movie before I give you the test.""Oh, I know that story," says Johnny. "My grandpa tried reading it out loud to me from something that looked like one of these books, but I fell asleep."The above scene is obviously fictionalized, and yet it appears that someday sooner than you think books will become museum artifacts. Recently, a large school district in New Jersey, where my wife and I used to teach, eliminated librarians from its budget for next year. The intention is to put more money into the purchase of technology and phase out all printed materials. Textbooks are also on the chopping block since students can access print information online.Schools across the country are boasting of their technology-driven curricula. They claim they are preparing their students for the future by implementing the latest in techno-toy instruction. Walk down any hallway in High School America and you'll see dimly lit classrooms, with rows of iPad screens burning brightly while students fingertip their way through classic literature, world history and scientific discoveries. These kids are information vacuums, but what they do with it all is another matter.A teacher I know was criticized by an administrator for reading excerpts from a novel out loud to his high school students for the purpose of stimulating class discussion."I was told that asking the kids to discuss scenes from novels is 'old school,' " he said. " He said too much time is wasted that would be better spent with my students looking up a synopsis of the book and then asking them inference questions similar to what they will see on the state tests. The irony is that my students loved the discussion. My students said nobody asks them to have full class discussions anymore. Other teachers put them into small groups so they get to talk with just a few. One kid actually said that he was glad I left the lights on in the room because he was tired of staring at white boards and computer screens all day long."Piles of money are wheelbarrowed to technology companies that sell their products to school districts. Boards of education, however, are praising the cost effectiveness, stating that textbooks and other print material wear out or get lost and have to be frequently replaced.When I taught high school, we would have silent reading time. Our principal would allow 15 minutes every day after homeroom for students in the entire school to read whatever they wanted. Kids read comic books, magazines, newspapers and novels. Most were appreciative that they were given the opportunity to read what they wanted when it was often difficult to do it on their own.Today, a typical teen's day is consumed with cellphone texting, iPad researching, video game playing, and TV watching. I once asked a 17-year-old to look at a clock to tell me the time and he whipped out his cellphone because he didn't know about "the big hand and the little hand thing." Try asking a kid questions about daily news events, current government policies or geographical locations, and I bet more times than not, all you'll get back is a blank expression.All of this techno-mania makes me happy I grew up in a different generation. After I read this newspaper today, I think I'll start reading a novel and take delight in turning the pages.Then I'm going to teach my son and daughter the difference between a Phillips and a flat-head screwdriver. Someday, they will probably find these and other tools in a museum next to the room filled with books.Oh, didn't I tell you? Public schools are also eliminating industrial arts programs. No more wood or metal shops, but that's OK. If something in the house needs fixing, just have your kid throw it on top of the books he's putting out with the garbage tonight and go buy a new one.Rich Strack can be reached at

katehep11@gmail.com.