The Child and the Machine: How Computers Put Our Children's Education at Risk

Alison Armstrong

ISBN 10: 0876592108 ISBN 13: 9780876592106

Publisher: Gryphon House, 2000

Synopsis

In Los Angeles, the Kittridge Street Elementary School eliminated its music program to hire a technology coordinator. A Virginia school turned its art room into a computer laboratory. In the United States, a record $6.5 billion was spent on educational technology for the 1998-99 school year, while funding for music, arts and other specialty areas continues to shrink. Stubbornly, nearly every measure of our children's educational performance refuses to rise.

Throughout the country, parents and educators ask themselves, "Can this trend be good for our children?"

The authors of The Child and the Machine say the answer, conclusively, is no. Computers don't help most children learn; in fact, in many cases their use is damaging. They argue:

* There is no evidence that the use of computers improves reading or writing skills. Disturbingly, studies show the reverse is more likely.
* The "new emerging technology" currently in classrooms is used poorly, because many teachers have not been effectively trained.
* The indirect costs to children, in the form of reduced art, music, and physical education, stunt their natural development.
* The real dollar costs are far higher than people realize-and far higher than many school boards will admit. In case after case, computer upgrade and training costs are underestimated by many thousands of dollars.
* The rush to use computers with young children too often ignores the real risks of eye strain, repetitive strain injury, and other physical injuries, with potentially tragic results.

Drawing from hundreds of school visits, studies, and expert interviews, The Child and the Machine paints a compelling picture of how our uncritical rush to use computers in schools has led to one of the most expensive and least helpful revolutions in the history of American education.

About this title

Review

The number of computers in schools more than doubled during the 1990s, while government and corporate initiatives to wire schools for Net access has been aggressive. But how are computers affecting the way children experience school? The Child and the Machine offers one possible answer to that question. Authors Alison Armstrong and Charles Casement argue that "computers put our children's education at risk" by diverting funds from art, music, and other programs. What Armstrong lacks in scholarly or professional accreditation she makes up for in tenacity. A concerned mom's polemic, The Child and the Machine meets Armstrong's laudable goal of providing a framework for a "long overdue public discussion" about computers in elementary schools. Chapters about keyboarding, reading on-screen, using word-processor programs, and playing computer games are spiked with useful tidbits of educational theory. The importance of physical stimulation in children's learning is uppermost for Armstrong. Despite the computer's much-vaunted capacity to retrieve pages of information about ladybugs, for example, it is an inadequate substitute for holding the real thing in the palm of your hand. What's missing from Armstrong's account is sufficient attention to the role of parenting. Computers may indeed be a bland experiential diet for hungry young minds, but Armstrong's worry that computers are ruining children's appetite for other kinds of activity is unsupported. Still, The Child and the Machine views with healthy skepticism the benefits of the influx of computers in the elementary school classroom and will sharpen one's thinking on this vital subject. --Kathi Inman Berens

About the Author

Gryphon House, Inc. is an award-winning publisher of resource books for parents and teachers of children from birth through age eight. Developmentally appropriate and easy-to-use, Gryphon House books provide parents and teachers with the tools they need to bring the joy of learning to young children.

Edition details

• Publisher: Gryphon House
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0876592108
• ISBN 13: 9780876592106
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256