Computer Literacy Support should not be Conditional: Joanne Jacobs comment

By heather on June 18, 2008

In today’s Joanne Jacobs article, Computers Don’t Boots Poor Kids’ Grades,” I commented that they may not boost them now, but as we all know, our mission as educators is not just to increase test scores, but also to create life long learners.  Look, I think that if we as educators are charged with preparing students with the strategies that are their future, we must make them computer literate. That means doing everything we can to promote safe and easy computer usage in the home.

Just as we as educators strive to make books accessible to those who are struggling readers, so too must we add computers to that list, for technology is not just for the elite anymore. The Home Ec and Shop classes of yesteryear are dwindling away and in their place needs to be classes and encouragement in those skills that will be our students’ future blue-collar skills…those in technology.

The statistics of what the kids do with a computer once it’s in the homes can’t derail us from our mission, to educate and prepare. Get those computers in the homes and in the schools. Then we’ll tackle responsible usage. But if we allowed the irresponsible to dictate every generation’s movement towards their future success, TV would have been banned long ago and books would still be in pyres.