Tufte read

I have to say That I agree with Tufte on the subject of teaching powerpoint to children. I had to write reports as a child and I benefitted from the task. Question one is why in this day and age of children having more and more less satisfactory testing scores do we feel the need to dumb down the lessons. When did it become more beneficial to substitute powerpoint for the tried and true test of research that is the report? Secondly how can we justify the use of such unreliable methods of analysis (powerpoint) in billion dollar government institutions that are funded by taxpayers dollars? I mean, I am not a rocket scientist yet I could have presented an equally informative PP. Who is setting the standards here? Microsoft?