But they've dropped other requirements of the past, (such as cursive writing, penmanship, Bible reading, singing, art, spelling, etc.) in order to allow more time for the "new" subjects.
When I interpreted some middle school classes that used smart board clickers or laptops, it seemed that a good portion of the class time was used passing out and collecting the equipment, replacing ones that didn't work, rebooting, explaining the process of each new task, etc.
More time is wasted in changing classes, loading and unloading backpacks, asking to go to the bathroom during class, and just plain goofing around. Then, there's sending kids to the office, retrieving kids from the office, being interrupted by PA announcements, and lock-down drills. (This was in the best public school of the best district; I can't imagine what happens in the other schools.) Because there were kids in the class that needed early dismissal from each period due to mobility problems, the teachers weren't allowed to teach anything during the last 10 minutes of each period. The Deaf students had to be dismissed from the final period early for their special bus, so no instruction was allowed during the last 10 minutes of the day.
Yep.