Perhaps someone has made this analogy before, but it occurred to me last night that computers are like treadmills. Each year, schools across the country buy tens of thousands of computers. LIkewise, each year individuals across the country buy tens of thousands of treadmills. My guess is that these two pieces of hardware are used effectively in roughly equal proportion. While tens of thousands of treadmills sit in people’s basements going unused (or used for purposes completely unrelated to improving one’s physical health), tens of thousands of computers sit in our schools going unused (or used for purposes completely unrelated to improving one’s learning).