School Computers Are Not Magic Pills

Re “Internet Emphasis Does Not Compute,” Orange County Voices (Dec. 12):

I applaud Regina Powers for her insightful article about computers in education.

She is so correct when she points out that we overemphasize the need for computers and the Internet in the classroom.

As a teacher, I believe we must focus on the basics first. We must focus on teaching math, writing, grammar, history, etc.

Computers have a place in the classroom, but they aren’t magic pills that will make great students.

MARK COHEN

Huntington Beach

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While I agree with Regina Powers’ thesis that Internet skills are not essential to children’s education, she undermines her case with numerous misstatements.

For example, she writes about hypothetical “students . . . in a computer lab furnished with 1980 Mac computers.” Macs were first released in 1984. (Does she not remember the award-winning Apple “1984” commercial that aired during the Super Bowl?)

She asks, “Wasn’t it less than a decade ago that BASIC was considered an advanced computer language?” No, BASIC was never considered an advanced computer language. It was considered a high-level language suitable for novices.

The B in BASIC stood for beginners. It was also considered a “toy” language (as opposed to Fortran, C, or Lisp) until Visual Basic brought Windows programming to the reach of an intelligent amateur.

Despite these flaws, she is exactly right in her statement, “Before demanding that all schools become Internet-accessible, let’s try becoming more effective at teaching children how to read, to write, to calculate, and to think.”

ART MERTZ

Irvine