E-Education

* Re Matthew Miller’s March 23 commentary suggesting that the Internet can offer Harvard-quality education: As any teacher will tell you, one key to learning is eye contact with students. Students thrive and grow in an atmosphere of creative competition and camaraderie that no hard drive and phone line can provide. Yes, the Internet may be able to deliver an amazing amount of information; it also isolates individuals, perhaps in destructive ways we’ve yet to realize.

Setting aside Miller’s absurd and condescending contention that the Internet is the only way “slum dwellers” in Watts can get an “Ivy League-style” education--free or not, would any parent want his child to sit home alone to “attend” AOL University?

MARK SHEPHERD

Santa Monica