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Sept 6, 2003 I am a terrible father. Mean. Heartless. Cruel. My sixth grade son is in agony over a decision I made this summer...NO COMPUTERS. Now before I get tracked down and beaten sensless with a wireless keyboard by a mob of netheads, let me explain. Last year while waiting for a full time position I was substituting at my sons school. (My field is science and math and I use a computer daily now in my job.) Anyway, last year there was a writing contest at my sons school. It was to be original and typed with illustrations optional. It was to be theirs and theirs alone. No help from mom or dad. They were allowed to use the school computers to finish their story and the classroom was used to bind their short stories and present them to a judge. Sounds good so far, right? Not really. It seems that in addition to the three R's they are also taught "spell check" and "grammer check". Now that in itself is just as harmless until you get to read some of their work. Instead of relying on actually teaching of spelling and propper sentence structure, they (the educators of our children) left it all to the almighty computer. My son could not understand why his well crafted, daring, tale didn't win when there was nothing wrong and all the words were right! So I sat him down at the computer we have at home and typed, "I ain't got none". I looked at him and asked if this was right. He stated no, it should be, "I don't have any". (See, my child IS smart! So the next time my son uses toilet paper as a napkin for a picnic, my nosey neighbor can just sneer someplace else!) Where was I? Oh yeah, grammer and stuff. After typing in "I ain't got none" I used the spell check option and the grammer check option on our home computer and arrived at..."I am not got any". A dim flicker of understanding slowly crept into my childs eyes. Which was soon replaced with utter horror when that same weekend I purchased a used typewriter and an actual dictionary. The typewriter was five dollars at a Goodwill store and the dictionary was a dime. Now I can't stop him from using school computers and I don't want him forever bannished from the one we have at home, I want him to learn how to use these things, they are everywhere and are here to stay. (Those who may think otherwise, please get in line with the rest of you who thought tv was a fad.) Even as I type this though, I think that he is planning an early competency hearing to test my sanity and place me and my wife in a home where Mike Wallace would be afraid to report from. But he will get over it. He will learn. And he will be able to clearly articulate words into sentences and write them in a clear and concise fashion. And he will probably be at the top of his class, (the rest of the student body will be too busy spamming each other)where he will then go to college and get an education, then correctly fill out an application (without smiley emoticons)and get a job where he can use a computer as a tool to better his job performance. My only hope is that he'll come and visit us every once in a while at "Shady Disentary Estates". ------------ Email Michael F Russell: mikerussellus@yahoo.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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