Why Kant Johnny Ciber
by Edward C. Truax
Ifs ya thinks educaten be expensive, tri eggnorence. Back space, back space, slash. Pity
the poor portuguese, discovered most of the new world yet wound up colonizing little of
it.
The question: Will a substantial amount of our nation’s children become ensnared by
the Internet, unable to break the gravitational pull of poverty and visit cyberspace? If
so, then comparatively speaking, the cast system of India appears to be a random lottery,
the apartheid of yesterdays Johannesburg, a Jeffersonian democracy. Sure enough is, that
is, this tale of two cities...
Enough! If the above banter of righteous indignation has not turned you off by now, then I
both commend and question your patience. This writer will open by confessing that he has
not, as of yet, brought a computer for a child or for that matter, a child’s
classroom. Until such time as I do, then I am a bit of a pompous Pontius Pilot for harping
about this problem.
Consider the following information.
In a recent state-wide survey, which met the criteria for statistical accuracy, taxpayers
were asked to list their complaints about public education. The lack of classroom
computers rated second only to concerns over violence in school. Quite a commentary in
itself considering that metal detectors are becoming more and more of a passageway into
twenty-first century schools.
Aside from that, on the political front there is a more responsive government, trying to
meet this deficit by allocating scarce funds for such technology purchases. In the private
sector there are folks like former Pennsylvania governor George Leader, who is moving well
on his way to fulfilling his goal of bringing all schools in Pennsylvania online. Yet a
responsive government is not necessarily an efficient one. Remember those $700.00 Air
Force hammers? The reason they became an outrage was because we all knew what a hammer
should cost. Want to guess what a chip should cost?
If this pied piper of technology is to be kept from destroying the society which we hired
him to save, then we must pay his fee. Capitalism must nurture this student market in
order to harvest the future rewards. Voters must demand that the subject be
de-politicized, parents
(if necessary) must trade their cable television bill for Internet access. Cutting to the
chase, we must simply teach our children well to learn their parents’ hell. In the
1960’s we massively funded the highest echelons of education, not fully understanding
that a biological learning window begins to close long before a child reaches adolescence.
We have grant money for doctorates, so funding for elementary school computers can not be
considered socialism.
The answer is on the high road my friends. New laws are not needed, more bureaucracy is
not wanted. What is so wrong with students holding fund raising drives for a class
computer? They do it for soccer equipment. Ideas are endless, each of us can set forth a
personal plan which if followed will result in some small victory. This we can do.
You see, possibly no other nation on earth feels as badly about itself as our own United
States of America does. We are almost paralyzed by our fear of crime, yet at the same time
addicted to the trauma inflicted by it’s presence. Not so very long ago we understood
that, while this is an imperfect world, and the nature of man makes that so, we as a
people are also inherently a good and generous lot. You know, with such a mind set, we
each walked on the moon during an early July morning back in 1969. Let us resolve to
contribute. Write us on our Internet website (www.MODEweekly.com, (formerly MODEmagazine.com)) or send us a letter
and agree to sponsor a staff member on our "MODE Walk-A-Thon for Kids’
Computers", better yet, join our cause, and on a morning in January of 1997 we will
walk together. With our pledges we hope to supply computers for area schools that need
them. The stakes are high.
As it once was written of the dead of war... Which one might have been a poet, which one a
teacher, which one might have been the doctor who found a cure for cancer? Here at
MODE we agree with general Collin Powell... a mind is a terrible thing to waste. |
