Sermon From The Mount: Ban Computers From Schools

Even by the standards of the average Daily Mail columnist, today's piece by Harry Mount: Goodbye, Mr Mircrochips (or why computers should be banned from our schools) is a corker of old-school prejudice and muddle.

In true "it-was-far-better-in-the-50s" tradition, Mount makes the case that computers are no replacement for the old chalk and blackboard which made this country what it is today.

The main point of the Canute-style piece appears to be to attack Gordon Brown's recent initiative to bring broadband access to the homes of some of the poorest people in this country as a waste of money. They'll only use them to play Grand Theft Auto, after all.

You could make quite a valid argument that the Brown plan is aimed at trying to bridge the digital divide by trying to ensure that disadvantaged kids don't fall even further behind with their homework but Mount sees it differently - it's really an abdication of responsibility.

He prefers to see a laptop as "a device beautifully designed to waste their time, avoid long periods of concentrated work, play games on, indulge their obsessions, narrow their horizons and reduce their attention span."

So is Mount calling for computers to be banned from classrooms or has some naughty sub top-spun his argument? And if computers are such generators of fecklessness, why not go the whole hog and ban all access to all kids, not just those in the C2, D and E non-Mail reading demographic?

Luddite

Mount tries to defend some of his wilder assertions by claiming: "I'm no Luddite" and admitting: "There is no doubt technology can be a wonderful tool in the classroom." But getting back on track, he then argues - without any evidence - that "there is a pretty neat equation showing that the greater the use of computers in teaching, the less likely the pupils are to concentrate on what they are being taught, or retain information." Oh, and computers also lead to kids cheating as well - not that that ever happened before.

In Mount's masterpiece of muddle, a computer doesn't open up a whole new world or knowledge, act as a social leveller or prepare schoolkids for a career in the increasingly technology-driven workplace. No, the internet is, in fact, limiting their life chances and turning them all into brain-dead, game-playing plagiarists. So let's turn the clock back to those halcyon days of feather quills and cheeky scallywags playfully sweeping chimneys.

But one thing hasn't changed despite the pesky onward march of time and technical progress. As Mount himself remarks: "In pre-laptop days, it was fatal to put pen to paper before you had gone through the mental process of first constructing a pretty good argument in your mind or on paper." Or in post-laptop days either...

Comments

[Lasting Power of Attorney Surrey]

Me, I'm no luddite, but computers have nothing to teach children. Computing should be 1 subject like anyother. It should not be the centre of education, at best it is just one tool. We fail to educate our childrend if they can use computers but cannot read, write or most importanly, think.