Computers No Substitute For Learning

Mr. President, you’re wrong. The Internet is not a panacea to the ills of education, nor can it ever be. Electronics, no matter how “interactive,” cannot take the place of a parent or a teacher who listens and responds to a child’s needs. Johnny needs personal attention but unfortunately, for millions of “Johnnys,” time spent with a teacher is the only personal attention he gets all day.

Without question, a computer is a useful adjunct to a classroom, but the plug-it-in, boot-it-up approach to solving the troubles that beset education today is a pretty shabby dodge. Throwing money at a problem may temporarily obscure the symptoms but it will never cure the disease.

Education cannot be absorbed in disconnected bits and pieces. It is a lifelong process that (ideally) begins at birth with parents who talk to the child, read to the child and spend time with him, teaching him right from wrong and showing him by example how to respect himself and others. Education is not the end result of couch potato kids skimming the cable with a remote controller or surfing the Internet in search of the stimulus of the moment.

Classroom teachers are presently dealing with the products of electronic baby sitters - students with a 30-second attention span. And the frustrations these students experience when they realize they can’t click us off and move on to something with a little more action than spelling or long division is chalked up to “hyperactivity.”

“My Johnny is ‘hyper’ and that’s why he wants to hang from the window shades,” a mother offers by way of explanation. So what is done to socialize Johnny? Drugs. Soon, Johnny is a walking, talking zombie, calmed down and clammed up on the drug of the moment.

Quite frankly, I felt better about the old Johnny.

Clifford Stole, in his book, “Silicon Snake Oil,” makes the point that data, information, and knowledge are not at all the same things. The ability to absorb data and information might land the bearer a spot on Jeopardy but never a place in a Platonic discussion.

Vice President Gore’s desire to provide information superhighways to school children is inspirational. But it won’t wash. A student who can access the Library of Congress to glean facts for a speech on Third World countries is indeed fortunate, but that’s not going to teach him how to organize or deliver the speech.

The vice president speaks enticingly of youngsters having the option to explore a universe of knowledge, “jumping from one subject to another, according to the curiosity of the moment.” Lord help us! Doesn’t Mr. Gore realize that is the problem and not the solution? Or maybe he was a window shade hanger, too.

Before I stumble off my soapbox, I’d like to share something I recently clipped from a local newspaper. “Child care provided while parents gamble” is the headline that caught my eye. A 9-year-old Midland, Mich. boy describes his experience with casino day care as “better than any other place because of all of these fun games.” Casino officials proudly describe the innovative idea as part of making casino gambling a “family event.”

A “family event?” Picnics are a family event. A trip to the zoo is a family event. Sometimes, even trying to take a bath turns into a family event. But blackjack and slot machines, a family event? Who are they trying to kid?

And it gets better. We’re told that family will be emphasized even more when the casino opens an arcade with 70 to 80 machines to attract teenagers.

Nice going, guys.

For five bucks an hour kids can play video games or watch movies. There’s even a tots room with toys and baby swings for infants up to two years old. Kind of makes one wonder what’s coming up next on the child care horizon. Day care at the local bar? An early learning center in the back yard of Miss Effy’s Brothel and House of Horizontal Refreshment?

So tell me, Mr. President, how’re you going to fix that one?

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