The Written Word
for March 1, 2000

We are told that it’s critical that every school have enough computers for each child. That to do less is to deprive children of a proper education and hang the cost, which is staggering!

We’ve been conned by Bill Gates and his friends on the hardware side. There is no need for more than a handful of computers in any school.

Somehow we – including I – have been mesmerized by the Computer Age. We have one in our home and all offices are full of them so why shouldn’t every school child have one?

The question ought to inspire another question – for what? For a child to learn how to use a computer must he have one for himself? Using a computer for word processing is easy. I’m doing it at this very minute and I’m a world class Klutz. I should be taught to type properly but at this stage of my life, who cares. Teaching kids to type is nothing and only requires a few computers per school.

But what about the Internet? Don’t we have to train kids how to use that?

Well, my four year old granddaughter uses the Internet now and the problem is to keep it away from her. Accessing the Internet and using email are now so simple that a well trained chimpanzee could do it.

What about teaching kids to be experts … to program computers … to repair them … to get in on the R&D side of the computer industry?

That’s specialty work and only a few youngsters are ever going to get that serious about them. This is the modern day equivalent of technical school where people who wanted to fix cars used to go. It is not a consideration requiring school boards to provide every kid with a computer.

And suppose we do that – what’s the next step? Why, teachers will start to teach our kids using the Internet. Pretty soon, the art of teaching personally will be gone. Can you really imagine English literature being taught off a screen?

Now I’m no Luddite – though if I were now being made redundant in another industry I could be. It’s just that the computer has not yet gored my axe. But I see the dehumanizing of teaching in the same way we’ve desensitized people to violence. Kids have had their childhood stolen from them and now we’re prepared to make the teacher into if not a robot, the person who controls the robot. There is less and less mystery for kids. Last year I would guess 100 million parents or more had to explain to their little boys and girls what a blow job was, thanks to the President of the United States. Every thing is accessible and we’re prepared to take away the last bit of humanity left to kids? Plastic and glass plus a chip and a couple of programs (that break down with regularity) are taking the place of parents, other family members and teachers with children.

We can’t turn the clock back but we can check out a bit from time to time. We can insist that our children be taught by people who have feelings and sensitivities, good points and bad rather than by words and pictures online. In short, we have to take control of this beast before it takes hold of our kids and thus of society itself.