Chalkboards vs. Whiteboards

February 15, 2005

Occasionally my students express a longing for dry erase boards. This usually occurs when the chalk skips away from the slate-like-surface to throw a harpy squeal into the classroom air. At such times they will ask me, "Why don't you just use markers?" I give a cryptic response. I tell them that if they knew what I knew they wouldn't be so quick to embrace the shiny new technology of dry-erase.* 

And what is it that I know about dry erase boards that they may not?

• I know that dry erase boards also produce dust, but it is a dust of mysterious chemical constituents.

• I know that they also squeak like chalkboards. In fact, they squeak more often, but with less intensity.

• I know that the pungent scent of the markers can only be improved upon by the use of odiferous alcohol or acetone (the recommended cleaning agents of such boards).

I know that markers are not capable of creating the subtle tones and textural presence of an image like this:

Lascaux, France— A Prehistoric Pictograph 

Chalkboard drawing for the 8th grade study of Beauty and Aesthetics

I also know that the dark tones of the traditional chalkboard grant colors a radiance they cannot possess on the white board. The blackness of the chalkboard floats color while the blistering absence of color on the coated melamine of a white board bleaches out the radiance of any red, yellow, or blue put atop it.

Only with a chalkboard can I create a geometric construction that pulses with vibrant color:

The Flowering Circle from the Six Circle Form

Chalkboard drawing for the 6th grade study of Artistic Geometry

With a white board I have little more than a tabula rasa repository for chemical ink: blank, and potentially toxic.

*I know what I know because I only had white boards at my first school.