Computer Delusion

Todd Oppenheimer's article spoke to me very, very strongly. In fact, he is scary accurate, especially since the article was written in 1997. I couldn't agree more that computers, to some extent, are over-relied on. Having worked with high school students in very urban centers with career planning, we as an society seem to think that every child MUST attend college. 30 years ago, a small fraction of US actually carried college degrees. Since then, higher education has taken on the status (almost) as a God given right, and the pendulum has now swung too far in the opposite direction than it was 30 years ago. We are trying to make round pegs fit into square holes. Not every student MUST attend college. In fact, I ran a program at Brien McMahon HS that brought in the Head Foreman from Maritime Motors service department to speak to students at our senior career fair. His presentation captivated a number of students, who had no idea of the benefits and earning ability a good mechanic with all of his certifications can make. There were students gathered around the plumbers union table as well; and these were kids who were struggling to find success in the traditional classroom, and who were thinking of dropping out because they didn't want to go to college. While technology has become pervasive, it is, as the foreman from Maritime Motors said, only as good as the technician who is reading the computer outputs or inputting information into the computer. We as educators need to teach kids to think OUTSIDE OF THE BOX,to become critical thinkers, to be able to adjust on the fly once they are thrown a curve ball. Unfortunately, technology has killed some of that natural curiosity of kids to actually put their hands on something, to learn how to work with wood, or electricity. They have to see what's in front of them, canalize the hazards, and put together a plan of how they are going to act. While a computer can take the information the tradesman puts into it, the information is still coming from the tradesman, not the computer.