"So, I see technology as a Trojan Horse: It looks like a wonderful thing, but they are going to regret introducing it into the schools because it simply can't be controlled"
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Calling technology a Trojan Horse is a deliberately rude awakening: the gift arrives wrapped in “innovation,” but the real payload is loss of control. Greenberg isn’t fretting about kids staring at screens; he’s warning that once a school invites an open networked world into a closed institutional ecosystem, the school’s core bargain - adults curate knowledge, pace, and authority - starts to collapse.
The Trojan Horse image works because it shifts the argument from tools to sovereignty. A laptop or platform is never just an appliance in a classroom; it smuggles in incentives, surveillance, distraction economies, and a permanent outside audience. The “wonderful thing” is the sales pitch: personalization, engagement, access. The “regret” is what happens when the device’s logic competes with the school’s logic. The internet doesn’t respect bell schedules. Algorithms don’t share the curriculum committee’s values. And the most consequential actors - vendors, app ecosystems, content feeds - answer to markets, not teachers.
“Simply can’t be controlled” is the provocation. It’s not literal helplessness; it’s a claim about asymmetry. Schools are slow, rule-bound, underfunded. Technology is iterative, persuasive by design, and backed by the cultural assumption that resistance equals being anti-progress. Greenberg’s subtext: schools are inviting a force that will reshape attention, discipline, and even the definition of learning, while pretending it’s just a nicer worksheet.
In an era of edtech evangelism, this reads less like Luddism and more like an institutional warning label: once the walls become porous, the old classroom command-and-control model becomes the first casualty.
The Trojan Horse image works because it shifts the argument from tools to sovereignty. A laptop or platform is never just an appliance in a classroom; it smuggles in incentives, surveillance, distraction economies, and a permanent outside audience. The “wonderful thing” is the sales pitch: personalization, engagement, access. The “regret” is what happens when the device’s logic competes with the school’s logic. The internet doesn’t respect bell schedules. Algorithms don’t share the curriculum committee’s values. And the most consequential actors - vendors, app ecosystems, content feeds - answer to markets, not teachers.
“Simply can’t be controlled” is the provocation. It’s not literal helplessness; it’s a claim about asymmetry. Schools are slow, rule-bound, underfunded. Technology is iterative, persuasive by design, and backed by the cultural assumption that resistance equals being anti-progress. Greenberg’s subtext: schools are inviting a force that will reshape attention, discipline, and even the definition of learning, while pretending it’s just a nicer worksheet.
In an era of edtech evangelism, this reads less like Luddism and more like an institutional warning label: once the walls become porous, the old classroom command-and-control model becomes the first casualty.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
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