The Monterey County Herald

OUR VOICE
Monterey County
teens
COMPUTERS CAN'T REPLACE GOOD TEACHING

BY MICHAEL MOEWE
Herald Corespondent

Funding for education is very important to our society as a whole, not just a benefactor for the students in public school. The money we have allotted for public school funding should be used wisely to get the best use out of it.

Bill Clinton has talked about hooking every school to the Internet, as part of his campaign. I think people need to realize what it is that they're getting when they spend money on technology for schools.

The Internet is not a great tool for teaching. The Internet pales in comparison to the hype surrounding it. People think that children can think of any topic and pull up a wealth of information on it, but that is not the case.

The information in a library is what people seem to expect, but nobody has the time to transcribe entire libraries onto computers. There is nothing on the Internet that is incredibly beneficial to education, yet we continue to waste money on it.

I think that the huge amount of money needed to purchase computers could be better used for more traditional forms of education like books and also salaries for better teachers.

Rarely do computers help people learn. I think a good teacher and books really make the difference.

For instance, in my science class we do hands-on experiments that help us to understand the concepts. We also have computers with essentially worthless programs that never get used. I think the computers are just a waste of money that could be better spent on more lab materials. The only use I see for a computer in our class is as a measuring device for speed, temperature and other things in labs. All this can be done on an Apple computer from the 1980s, but we feel the need to get supercomputers just so schools can show off their technology.

I would rather have a huge library at my school than a room full of computers with thousands of dollars worth of programs when the computers are only needed for word processing.

The only thing is that people don't think about the results of spending all the money on the technology and hooking people up to the Internet. We think its the thought that counts, but thought doesn't make a difference if it's a waste of money that does not aid edu- cation.

I'm not saying that we should rid ourselves of technology altogether. Just think about how we need to use computers and buy the computers that schools need, and not go overboard.

People need to understand that computers can't compete with a good teacher. (Michael Moewe recently completed the 10th grade at Carmel High School. High School students interested in contributing to the Our Voice column should contact June Cornea- at 646-4345.)