12 May
1998
12 May
'98
1:43 p.m.
When was this thing with "computer literacy in schools is everything"
started? I like computers in schools, but I am tired of looking at
proposed plans to replace 5 MORE classrooms with computer labs. Is
this a classic thing? Would you in general say that computers have
affected education (keeping the discussion OnT, of course).
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> snoball wrote:
> >
> > Hi, I am a teacher here at the local elementary school in Humble,
TX. To
be
> > honest, the computer department here at the
school is rather
pathetic, two
> > Apple //e's and an XT that was donated
that I can't get to work.
To be
> > frank, these kids are going into a world
where they are illiterate
in the
> > basic workings of a computer. I hate to
sound desperate, but I
have just
> > exausted all leads I know to take on the
matter. I saw your ad and
thought
Don't panic. Here in New Jersey, the kids are all experts at
Nintendo (and some of the brighter lights at hacking security),
but damned few can actually read the manuals. Remember, the
most important component of "computer literacy" is "literacy".
If the kids can read, they can learn computers. If they can't,
there's not much else worth teaching them except to pee on the
side of the dumpster the cops aren't watching. (I may be a bit
prejudiced on the side of reading over computers -- I only have
fifty-odd computers, I've got [half bought new] several thousand
books, mostly the science fiction I've loved since before the
"New Math" was introduced to my grade school [after I'd had the
benefit of learning the stuff that worked].)
--
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_