Tools Are Fine, But Don’T Forget Toolmaker

Two recent news items inspire this epistle.

The Ponderosa PTSA has launched an ambitious plan to raise $50,000 to outfit each and every classroom at Ponderosa Elementary School with a complete computing workstation.

Also, local entrepreneur Bernard Daines, of Packet Engines fame, has donated $1 million to Central Valley School District to be used for increasing technology in the classroom.

These are wonderful acts of philanthropy; the former demonstrating parental commitment and the latter an act of gratitude from a successful native for the great start that led to his achievement. Bravo and thank you.

I don’t have $1 million to contribute, so instead I dare to presume that I have some wisdom to share regarding the effective and beneficial use of these generous gifts.

“Oh Computer. Hallowed be thy name. Thou art my daily bread. Thou art my hammer with which I shall rebuild the world.”

Of course this prayer parody has a crucial second verse.

“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from our own short-sightedness.”

Yes, I lament for our children in this silicon society.

I fear that the knowledge for which we 20th-century Frankensteins labored studiously, that these cyberbotic Prometheuses might rise from the earth, could vanish with its creators.

Now wait a minute. Computers are our friends. They help us have better lives. They make us smarter.

Get real.

I quite whole heartedly agree that the technology is marvelous, essential, perhaps even indispensable.

Unfortunately, we humans have a propensity for wasting our miracles as merely expensive playthings.

Need proof? I recall for you the miracle of television.

As for technology in education, I observe an uncanny Pied Piper syndrome with regard to the integration of computers in the classroom.

We have been quite captivatingly seduced by the glittering allure of virtual reality and the thrill of escaping through one of Bill Gates’ windows like midnight elopers off on a grand adventure.

The ability to spew e-mail, which is nothing more than a fancy phone call, has defocused us from fundamental language skills such as spelling, punctuation and grammar.

But wait, don’t computers have spelling and grammar checkers?

Oh puh-leaze!

Computers. The miracle of fools. It slices and dices and does your thinking for you. Point, click, voila!

What of the 3 R’s? What of penmanship? What of literature, poetry and good old fashioned human cleverness and self reliance on brain power and acquired personal knowledge?

Should people be smart or is that a tedious chore to be relegated to machines?

Why should we incur migraines in our fragile little darlings by requiring memorization of multiplication tables? We have computers that do arithmetic. They have freed us to aspire to greater heights, such as critical thinking.

I recall when pocket calculators emerged to displace the slide rule, then the nerd’s computer of choice. A sage instructor at my high school astutely quipped, “What will you do if the batteries run out in the middle of the desert?”

What did we invent computers for, anyway?

Should we have technology in the classroom? Yes, absolutely!

But this should not be a “keeping up with the Joneses” competition.

We must plot to build upon and extend our accumulated knowledge. Unlike my hard drive, my brain is far from full.

Computers are indisputably essential appliances of the new millennium. Humanity must and will advance and progress. We must have the best tools with which to build the world of the future.

We must not lose sight, however, of the fact that tools are extensions of ourselves.

Please consider the advice of one who toils at the forge of technology every day.

First, program your brains!