Education’s BRIGHT PROMISE: Two Views of Computers : With the Help of Software, Science Becomes Enticing

Chaos theory is the most important scientific development since Einstein, according to leading mathematicians and physicists. Science writer James Gleick’s dramatic 1987 account of its origins, “Chaos: Making a New Science,” introduced thousands of non-specialists to the subject.

I have been reading Gleick lately. And I had an opportunity not long ago to discuss chaos theory in person with a fellow who has been studying it as a hobby and understands it better than I do.

He’s 10 years old, and to me he represents a future of education that’s brighter than our schools’ gloomy critics seem able to imagine.

Barriers to kids’ understanding of challenging subjects have fallen because of the home computer. Their appetite for computer games knows no limits, and to them science is a game. Note the wild popularity of SimCity 2000, which has been designed with input from the professional scientific community.

The sophistication of computer software and hardware being marketed for home and school use these days may daunt adults, but kids--including my 10-year-old tutor--jump on it like a duck on a june bug.

“There was a Chaos class ad,” Jon Carlo Bruttomesso told me at his home in Agoura Hills. “My parents and I discussed it. I met all the requirements.”

“Even if something is blowing up, it actually has order to it,” he said. “We can now write down the changes on the computer. It’s never the same every time you do it. There are sort of random rules. If you know chaos theory when you’re approached with other types of sciences, you’ll know what’s really going on and have a better idea of it. And it’s fun.”

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Jon Carlo found the course, titled “Order Out of Chaos,” among the offerings at the Agoura Hills locations of Futurekids. This is a franchise operation offering after-school computer classes.

It surprised me to learn that kids like Jon Carlo are signing up to study chaos at as many as one-third of the 1,200 Futurekids sites. You might suspect that parents, impatient to give their kids a head start in the competitive job market, are pushing their children in this direction--an American answer to juku, the notorious after-school cram courses in Japan and Korea.

But kids love computers, especially the powerful feeling of controlling an “adult” machine, and are asking their parents to enroll them in programs like Futurekids or buy them the latest software.

What is significant about Jon Carlo isn’t just how bright he is, though he’s plenty bright. It’s the fact that he is in the middle of a new generation that’s growing up with computers the way mine grew up with TV and hi-fi. When I visited a Futurekids location, I saw youngsters being tutored in desktop publishing, graphic design, math, writing--and, of course, chaos.

These kids are not just using computers to do traditional schoolroom tasks like typing and arithmetic. As it’s explained to parents who shell out nearly $100 for kids, some as young as 9, to attend these afternoon sessions, “your child will use the computer to recognize the hidden order behind the chaos in nature.”

Scientific American this fall reported that chaos is “manageable, exploitable and . . . invaluable” in solving problems ranging from increasing the power of lasers to stabilizing heartbeats. Superstar physicist Richard Feynman called it the most significant development of the 20th Century, after the Theory of Relativity and quantum mechanics.

At home, Jon Carlo carries on with what he learns at Futurekids, doing animated scientific simulations which are possible with a regular home computer and a disc titled “James Gleick’s Chaos: The Software.” Things like causing simulated algae to multiply in a pond until they use up all the naturally available nutrients and die.

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“A lot of things you shouldn’t do at home,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “But chaos is one thing you can do at home without doing anything really bad.

“It’s a way of delving deeper into anything you see in everyday life. I think it gives me a deeper understanding of what’s going on. Like the weather. That’s chaotic. Sports. Money. The stock market is sort of chaotic.”

Then he paused a long time and grinned as he uttered his newest revelation: “Hey, you could get rich using chaos theory.”