Since when is reading aloud too understimulating for 8-year-olds? 

Pedagogy is bound to shift and change over the years. Very few people alive today used a slate to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic the way that Anne of Green Gables and Laura Ingalls Wilder did, and that’s for the best. Using a pencil on paper allows you to keep a written record of your work, which makes it easier to study. The superiority of paper over slates is undebatable. It’s much more debatable whether kids should use iPads with styluses in math class or stick with pencils and paper as their parents did. After all, it’s much easier to lose a piece of paper than it is to lose notes that are automatically saved to your iCloud. 

An underrated aspect of education is the human connection between teachers and students. School administrators often care more about kids getting good grades on paper than about who they are becoming as people. If a teacher can’t take control of their class, there is no way they’ll be able to teach effectively. 

The teacher in this story has done the impossible. She has made storytime impersonal.