We couldn't afford slates. So we wrote on Billy. He didn't mind the chalk, but fussed at pen and ink.

My daughter made the mistake of writing on the dining room table...with a knife. Once.

Not just in Australia....

I remember having slates in Illinois in the '50s.

Where do the batteries go?

My first teaching job was at Union College in Schenectady. I had a classroom (assigned to me and only me and next to my office) in the ancient Carnegie Hall. The room was panelled with polished black slate. This was the most perfect writing surface I ever encountered in 37 years of teaching. All the modern surfaces, greenboards, whiteboards, whatever, are terrible compared to slate.

After I left for greener pastures, the classroom was used as a set in the movie "The Way We Were," and the slate was covered over because the room was too dark for filming.

Does it have Bluetooth 2.0?

Kids taught with the slate could learn to do calculus, or write sonnets on it. Children taught with the electronic toys can not spell words or do more than simple arithmetic on the slate. If even that.

JWM