I don't allow The Goobers on the computer. They don't play games, they don't use email, they don't do research and they don't use the word processor. There are no computers in our classroom. It wasn't always this way. We used Rosetta Stone and they played Zoo Tycoon, and they emailed their friends and looked up the scientific name for the hippopotamus on Google. JellyMan even started a typing program. In other words, they were almost normal. Don't worry; I saved them.
Google was first to go. I got tired of having to sit with them while they poked around online, because after all, we already have all the information they could possibly need - in books! Use the index, Goobers! Grab an encyclopedia! I'm busy over here!
Email was next on the list. It encouraged lazy thinking, sloppy sentence structure, spotty grammar and the total disregard of punctuation and capitalization, and I just couldn't get behind something so detrimental to their writing. It wasn't just my Goobers, either; the kids they were emailing were obviously having the same trouble. When Anemone received an emotionally manipulative chain email, it was easy for me to cut the cord. They can write all the letters they want. They haven't received any replies, but that's life in the electronic age.
I uninstalled Zoo Tycoon when I realized it was the reason my photo editing software was so agonizingly slow. That was it for the computer games.
We stopped studying Spanish, so that was the end of Rosetta Stone.
All that's left to them is the word processor, and since they don't type it's easier for them to write their essays on paper. And let's face it, they need the penmanship practice! Many people have told me that my Goobs will be hindered later in life by not knowing how to use a word processor. Come on! How long does it take a person of normal intelligence to learn how to use a word processor? It's fairly straightforward, you know.
My Goobers are not allowed to use calculators, either. After all, Newton (and that other guy nobody ever remembers) invented calculus without calculators, and generations of students managed to learn calculus without calculators. Why should my Goobs have to use a crutch? This has caused some problems for me, as I have had to teach them how to find square roots (and cube roots are coming up fast) manually. Such things are not taught in today's math books - at least, not in the ones we use.
Anemone didn't mind the the switch to a computer-free lifestyle, but JellyMan greatly resented the fact that "everybody but him" uses fancy calculators to do their equations for them. He couldn't understand why "everybody but him" is allowed to email and instant message. Then one day I checked out a book called High Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian by Clifford Stoll. (Not many people agree with me on this issue in real life, and sometimes I need a little bit of encouragement!) JellyMan picked it up before I had time to read it, fully expecting to rip the guy's pathetic arguments to shreds with his newfound logic skills, but as he got deeper and deeper into the book he started making small appreciative noises to himself, and eventually those appreciative noises became words like, "Oh!" and, "That makes a lot of sense." Finally he came to me and said, "Mom, you are right not to let us use computers."
And I, being who I am, replied, "I told you so." Of course, I also went on to say something like, "Why do you not believe me when I say it, but it makes total sense when some stranger writes it in a book? Huh? Answer me that, JellyMan!" At thirteen years old, the boy is still convinced that if it is in print, it is true. One of these days I will break him of that mindset. I hope.
I don't expect to keep The Goobers away from computers forever. In fact, I very much want them to use and understand computers, but I want them to use them as tools, not as unusually expensive toys. To that end, The Man and I have promised each Goober a fabulous new laptop (along with some sort of computer instruction) just as soon as they finish calculus.
;)
Sunday, December 6, 2009 at 11:41AM 
