Letter grades and schooling seem inseparable. Suggesting they be abolished meets with reactions ranging from disbelief to fear about simplistic proponents of outlandish ideas. Standard questions immediately arise. Would students study if they weren't enticed by a good grade or threatened by a poor one? If they aren't necessary, why are they used everywhere?

Perhaps grades will be around forever, but I think another alternative exists. Before we canonize them as irreplaceable, some queries are appropriate:

• 1. What are the benefits of grades?
• 2. Can grades ever have negative features that are detrimental to learning?
• 3. Are other means of achieving those same advantages in existence today?
• 4. Is it possible that better results might be attained without grades?

Underlying the whole investigation is the point that I have stressed repeatedly in this book: serious flaws cripple American education, and what is now being done isn't removing them. That doesn't mean, of course, that change should be imposed merely to start something new. It does suggest that many established procedures should be carefully examined. After study, if grades prove to be totally beneficial they should be retained. Otherwise it might be better to modify them, or to discard them, if something better can be found.

Grades have many valuable features. Seeing the possibility of receiving a good or better mark, students often work more diligently. Reception of good grades provides a reward, and I have stressed that rewards are psychologically necessary for anyone trying to succeed in any type of endeavor.

Grades also allow students, teachers and parents to judge whether students are doing well in the learning environment. Through grades, teachers can judge which students need additional help during a course, and which are ready to be advanced at its conclusion. Grades help students judge whether they are succeeding. If they are failing, they obviously need more work. Even if they are getting by, prospects of receiving a lower grade than is desirable might push them to do more studying. A report card with its curt but definitive set of marks is a believable signpost on which parents can rely. The suggestion to eliminate grades distresses guardians because of the value of knowing how their children are performing in school. Grades enable them to reward good efforts, or to encourage their children to study more when necessary.

These advantages are reasons that grades have endured in education for centuries, despite occasional attempts to dispense with them. The more important reason grades remain is because until now, no other suitable way of achieving similar results has been found. This is an important answer to the rhetorical question asked a few paragraphs back about why they are used universally if they are unnecessary. Lack of an alternative has also been the justification for overlooking the inherent problems connected with grades. Now that technology makes it possible to dispense with them, their true value, including their disadvantages, needs to be studied.

One negative complication of grades is that they depend not only on students, but also on teachers. Similar marks may signify different accomplishments if given by different teachers. Some teachers achieve a reputation for giving good grades without requiring much work. An unfortunate consequence is that students sometimes choose teachers because of the probable grade instead of what they will learn.

Even the same teacher assigning grades will not always evaluate the work of every student with equal impartiality. The possibility of bias and prejudice, whether positive or negative, is always a danger whenever a grade depends in any way upon a subjective judgment of a teacher, and that happens frequently. As was said earlier, bias may not be deliberate and may exist even if the instructor is not conscious of it.

Grades are dependent not only on teachers, but on the standards of schools and these differ widely. Students sometimes transfer to another school and find that they have learned less than their new classmates although they received satisfactory grades in their prior school. A grade in one school may have a different connotation than the same grade in another school. Neither may accurately reflect how much learning has taken place. Grades may allow a student and his or her parents and teachers to see how well the student is doing as contrasted with the rest of the class without showing the quality of the education. This failure to evaluate schooling is particularly important today. Although many people may be aware that American schools are producing results inferior to those of other nations, most parents feel that their child is receiving a good education. The grades their children receive contribute to this mistaken security. When they receive a report card with high marks, they never realize their children are receiving a poor education when judged by international standards.

Grades show nothing about the knowledge that students would have acquired in a different school or with another teacher or under diverse circumstances. The drop in SAT scores at prestigious schools is a serious problem. Students entering those schools have probably been getting as many A's as their predecessors. Despite equal grades, their learning is less than that of former students.

A major difficulty with grades is the confusion they engender between true learning and the reception of a grade. Hope of a good mark instead of a desire for learning generates many inappropriate behaviors in schools. The common practice of "cramming" for tests illustrates the evil of stressing grades as opposed to learning. Research on the "Spacing Effect" mentioned in Chapter 13 shows that cramming is an ineffective learning tool. Although it may not be much help to learning, students use the practice widely and justiifiably swear by its value for getting better marks, and students are judged on grades, not on learning.

Grades have the further disadvantage that they may give a distorted picture of what is success. Many students who have received poor marks in school have done well, while others who have received good ones have discovered that life in the world is different from life in a school. Some students develop a knack for achieving good grades, and not always because they learn exceptionally well. Grades measure one type of intelligence, but intelligence is now known to be a multifaceted trait. The demand for good marks often outweighs the esteem of other talents.

None of these shortcomings are as damaging as another serious drawback - they can devastate self esteem. While an A or B may be rewarding, a D or F is not. These lower marks are punishing. Punishment can sometimes be used effectively, but vast amounts of research show that the outcome of punishment is difficult to predetermine. While an F might increase effort it will more likely have the opposite effect, and demoralize the student. A succession of low grades will lead inevitably to complete discouragement.

Although the immediate conclusion of an onlooker seeing a low grade might be that the student needs to try harder, that assumption could be false. Many causes, including failure of schools to teach children to read well, could result in low marks. Lack of effort by students may bring poor grades, but it is only one of many possible causes.

The negative effect of poor grades was voiced by educational researchers at a conference on student motivation sponsored by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). They concluded:

Because high ability students usually capture the best grades and test scores, the labor of less-talented students is seldom acknowledged and the grades they receive for it do not inspire effort. Hence, low-ability students and those who are disadvantaged - students who must work harder - have the least incentive to do so. They find this relationship between high effort and low grades unacceptable, something to be evaded if possible. Some of them express their displeasure by simple indifference, others by disruption and deception.⁵⁸

For this dilemma no one has proposed a viable solution, and none is foreseeable as long as grades retain their present position in education.

Obviously, grades are not perfect, nor are they indispensable. Computerized education can eliminate them, but to justify abolishing them, or even modifying them radically, however, their authentic advantages must be accounted for in another way.

The value of grades can be summarized under two major headings:

• 1. They stimulate students to work harder either by providing rewards or by threatening to punish anyone who performs poorly.
• 2. Grades allow students, teachers and parents to form an evaluation of the progress students are making, even if their conclusions are sometimes mistaken.

Rehashing the capability of computers to provide rewards would be superfluous. Computerized education fills this human need better than grades can ever accomplish as I have stressed, chiefly in Chapter 12. It applies to better students, to slower students, to all students.

Computerized education will eliminate the penalty of low grades, but the difficulty of achieving beneficial results militates against using punishment. It may seem contradictory, but with computers, rewards will replace most penalties. Even if a student falls behind the standards of what should be accomplished, computers seek something to praise rather than to criticize. Critics may dismiss this outlook as too idealistic. They forget that rewards are much greater stimuli to improvement than punishment. The more students achieve, the more likely they will be to strive further. The present method of punishing poor students is unsuccessful. Twenty-five million illiterates in the nation received a liberal dose of poor grades. They remain illiterate. Students in the Florida at-risk programs had been receiving punishments in the form of poor grades for many years. Their poor performance continued. When they began to be rewarded for their successes, their accomplishments increased beyond expectations.

Any educational system must judge the progress of students by what they have learned. Grades are supposed to indicate learning, but they are not synonymous. Unfortunately, students (and their parents) usually concentrate on grades, not on learning.

Reports of progress in computer schools will be based on what was learned, not on a sometimes arbitrary grade that someone assigned. In computerized education the report from a course will be that the student has mastered a specified amount of material. It won't say that the child received an A or a C. The report will also include how completion of this subject matter accords with what is necessary for the child to be graduated by a suitable age, and the course's relation to other goals established for the student.

Students will embrace different objectives. Some may be planning to stop their education at age eighteen. Others may plan to go to Community Colleges or to Universities. Different requirements and norms will accompany varied goals, but students can strive for any objective and can also change as they progress. Different courses will also depend on what the student wishes to study in colleges and universities. Underlying the variations will be certain standards that all students will be expected to complete in basic subjects of English and other languages, math, sciences, history and geography. With computers, the software will determine when a student has learned enough to advance to the next step in his or her education. Computers can build this into their reports. They can make that information continually available to Leader Teachers who will be able to relay it to parents in their meetings, or through mail as report cards are sent today. The teachers will also, of course, reinforce what students already know about their progress.

Parents will know how their child's growth in learning corresponds with what should be expected as a minimum, but also what students similar to their child will attain. The computer reports will present a more extensive review of what the child is accomplishing, where his or her particular strengths lie, and what kind of additional studies might be profitable.

If the student is showing extra ability, computers will do more than simply award an A. They will note and encourage the child to build on this capability. An example is mathematics. Those students who master sufficient arithmetic to begin algebra could do so whatever their age might be, and regardless of the time it took to reach that mastery. It is also be irrelevant at what time in the semester the achievement takes place. When algebra is completed, further advanced math courses will be available, and parents will be made aware of this progress. Standard courses will be given in a regular order, but age will not deter students from going beyond that normal pattern.

Computerized education will be geared to preventing students from falling behind. If a student does fail to achieve enough for his or her age level, the Leader Teacher will be made aware of it through the regular computer progress report. The teacher may then wish to involve outside resources if other problems such as drugs or illness exist. Parents will also be informed.

Computerized education will help to equalize opportunities because computers can teach the same everywhere with equivalent software. National norms for necessary education will be easier to establish. Although computers cannot eliminate the differences that pupils bring to school with them, they can provide the means for helping children from the poorest environments to receive a suitable education. These children are virtually abandoned in schools today and never become educated.

Students will be made aware of their progress toward minimum learning requirements that will enable them to graduate. They will also know, however, how they compare with ordinary and exceptional students in many subjects, including those that might interest them as a possible life work. If a student is excited by a subject, it will be valuable to know how he or she matches up with other students who also might be thinking of a future in the field. Occasionally a comparison might point out that a student is poorly qualified, but more likely it will create another inducement to continue, or at least, point out improvements that will be needed. Usually, students become intrigued by subjects in which they have talents, and additional encouragement can only be beneficial.

While students will always be rewarded, they must look at their accomplishments realistically and honestly. They will be able to see how they compare with students not only throughout the country, but also in other nations.. It will be helpful to the United States if pupils, especially the brighter ones, understand that they have intense competition in every other country. They need to be reminded that the world is larger than the physical boundaries of the school they happen to attend.

Although grades will be eliminated, some national tests will still be valuable. The SAT exam is helpful for college admissions and will pose no difficulty.

Computerized education can eliminate grades and still provide the two predominant contributions that grades make to education - rewards and notification of progress. Computerized education will accomplish both assignments better than grades. Computers will also eliminate the shortcomings of grades. Their indications of progress will not be dependent on variations of individual teachers. Computers will show progress in actual learning, and can be based on the same criteria for all students. An added bonus will be that by eliminating most punishments, they will concentrate on building positive reinforcement.

This chapter has concentrated on letter grades, but class grades like fifth grade or ninth grade, will also be eliminated. Current grades are artificial molds in which schools must confine children because they have no other option without individual tutors. Good education could dispense with them without harm. Alexander the Great didn't feel slighted because Aristotle didn't move him along at the same pace as the other students in Macedonia.

In computerized education, each academic subject will have a series of accomplishments needed to complete the course. Students have different abilities and their rate of advancement should and will vary. Pupils today cannot progress at dissimilar speeds because each class must move in lockstep unison to cover each course of the curriculum in the allotted time. The individualized instruction of computerized education will allow students to advance at precisely the rate that will be advantageous for them. Predetermined schedules will not govern their progress, nor will their advancement depend on the abilities of other pupils. Some will move faster, some slower. Some will show more skill in one type of course, but the same students may be weaker in other subjects.

Since grouping children according to similar chronological levels is advantageous, age will be the criterion for placement of children in schools. The number of age levels in each school can be adjusted according to the needs of the locality. The value of neighborhood schools will be an important consideration. Individual systems may want more or fewer age groups in one location than will be helpful elsewhere. Age divisions will depend on local conditions, but will be irrelevant to the schooling that children receive.

Grouping children only by age, and teaching them individually, will prevent the destructive practice frequently found today: schools pass children despite their lack of preparation for what will be taught in the new grade. As was mentioned above, the result of this system is that students can be graduated, but still not be educated. Schools, however, often have few alternatives, and they confront an impossible dilemma. If they advance the child without sufficient learning, he or she is unprepared for what will be taught in the next class. If they do not move the student to the next grade, the child is an obvious failure with consequent damage to his or her self esteem, and will be out of place with younger children.

This difficulty hinders not only students who are totally behind in their studies, but also affects those who are only deficient in one or a few areas. Even when a child is able to do some work for the next grade, he or she may be unable to do all necessary work. A student, for example, may have mastered the writing skills and the history lessons for grade four, but may not have succeeded in his or her struggle with mathematics for that grade. Sometimes an attempt is made in summer school to help bridge that gap. Often the choice comes down to keeping students in grade four where they have already mastered part of the material or sending them to grade five where they will be at a disadvantage in some subject. This problem will cease with computerized education. Children will be where they should be chronologically, and the computer software will be teaching them exactly what they need to learn next in the progression toward graduation.

In the initial years of computerized education, abolishing artificial grade differentiations will be particularly important because extensive remedial instruction will be necessary. Students who are older will still be studying subjects that will be taken only by much younger students after computerized education has made its impact felt in schools. After the present formidable weaknesses of students are worked out, variations in course work will be less pronounced. Whether the differences are large or small, however, computerized education can manage them without class grades.

After computerized education is established, virtually all students will be able to meet the basic standards. Then divergences will develop because certain students will be able to progress much faster and will be doing more advanced work in fields that interest them. That variation will not hinder students. Children of the same age could be in the same school and in the same classrooms, but be working on much different studies.

This chapter began with the question of possible elimination of a venerable tradition in schools - letter grades. It has been expanded to include class grades. After examination, proposals to eliminate both forms of grades prove to be reasonable. When grades exit from schools, their benefits and strong points will remain, but their inherent problems will disappear.

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Another complaint is leveled at American education: students are not taught to think well. Authors assign various names to the desired activity including "critical thinking", "higher order thinking," or "improved reasoning." Writers use these terms somewhat differently, but a basic idea is that students need to be able to progress from a knowledge of facts to arrive at more complex conclusions through intellectual activity. For simplicity, I'll use the terms interchangeably and synonymously because of their common foundation.

One explanation why development of higher order thinking is weak is that many children are poorly educated. Everyone must have basic information before trying to advance to further conclusions. If students lack sound learning foundations, they can't use facts as the stepping stones to advanced reasoning. With hundreds of thousands of illiterate students leaving the school system each year, many obviously aren't acquiring sufficient basic knowledge upon which they can build a better system of thinking. Improving basic education is, therefore, a major priority in attempts to develop advanced thinking.

Where suitable education is in place, educational writers stress the need for teachers to formulate and use penetrating oral questions to develop reasoned thinking.⁵⁹ Although this theory is excellent, carrying it out creates a familiar problem for teachers. Widely different levels of student ability and knowledge appear in every class. No individual question can be equally helpful to all pupils simultaneously. Questions that aid some students may be too elementary or excessively difficult for others.

The diversity among student abilities has its usual counterpart among teachers who have different abilities and skills. Developing good questions is an art. Some instructors have greater talent for creating thought provoking questions. Some also have more ability in posing their questions to the class.

Educators caution about a potential hazard in some recitations. Many teachers find it difficult to allow sufficient time for students to think seriously about what they will say in response to questions. This time to answer questions is "wait time" or the interval the teacher gives students to answer before another question or an evaluation of a response is given. Some teachers have a tendency to abbreviate this period. Quick reactions prevent uncomfortable pauses that might bore students. The unfortunate result is that shorter "wait time" makes it more difficult for students to become accustomed to think thoroughly about questions.

Readers who have progressed this far in this book suspect they know what is coming next. They probably think I am going to try to show that computerized education can develop higher order thinking and can do it better than today's system. Those of you who have come to this conclusion have exercised your thinking skills well and you are correct. I think computerized education will be far more efficacious for developing better reasoning in students.

Keep in mind three of the requirements for developing higher order thinking: a good underlying education, thought provoking questions and sufficient time for students to think before responding. Computers can manage these assignments with ease.

I have discussed in many places in this book why computerized education can provide superior learning for students.

Beyond the need for better education, good questioning is also important with computers as with individual teachers. Students must have an impetus to take information they have acquired and use it as the basis of developing their reasoning powers. Thought provoking questions aid this process. Computers can be programmed to ask stimulating questions with varying levels of difficulty that can be effective with different types of students.

This possibility of computers querying pupils may bring hesitation among some readers who will have a couple of immediate questions themselves. Can computers correct the answers to the questions that are beyond mere "Multiple Choice" queries? If computers must use multiple choice questions, can these help to develop thinking?

I'll start with the second part about the value of multiple choice questions that computers can obviously provide. A major difficulty with many questions found on today's tests is their poor quality. Many quizzes are not ideally constructed.⁶⁰ Consequently, the value of these questions cannot go beyond their inherent weaknesses. When programmers can have a few outstanding teachers formulate questions, these queries will be of consistently high quality. Moreover, all computer questions possess an advantage of enormous value - each answer can be immediately corrected, and feedback given. This capability of a rapid response and follow up to every answer of every student is a magnificent learning tool, and when combined with well formulated questions can aid development of critical thinking that is difficult to duplicate except through individual tutors.

Satisfactory responses will bring additional questions aimed at helping students use their reasoning powers. If an incorrect answer is chosen, the computer can provide an explanation of the error. An additional question or questions can be immediately presented. Multiple choice questions, used this way, can lead students to understand material well, and can teach them to think better.

Now we can return to the first question about the ability of computers to correct and evaluate responses to other types of questions. Software gives computers unequalled versatility that will allow them in the future to go beyond multiple choice questions. The gargantuan memories of the machines combined with their immense power and speed will make it possible to analyze many types of responses. Programmers working with teachers, will develop many of the correct or applicable answers to questions, and store them in the machine's memory. Computers will read a student answer and compare it with what is in its memory. Students will not have to write exactly what is stored, but the computer will scan their answers for key words and phrases. By that, the machines can help guide pupils toward the crucial responses that accompany higher order thinking.

Although computers can analyze some answers today, this machine skill is in its infancy and will improve as computerized education is more widely used. Programmers will receive continual feedback about the results of software as it is being used. I have commented upon some effects of this return of data in Chapters 6, 7, and 13. Programmers will be informed about answers that students made to queries with the subsequent response that the computer provided. These replies can then be studied by teachers and programmers to decide how the computer could improve its methodology and how it could augment better thinking by students. Upgrades to software will be ongoing, and the teaching skills of computers will continually advance.

A further comment about correction of answers is fitting here. Questions are intended to stimulate students to think. Analysis of answers will ensure that incorrect or frivolous responses are noticed, but they have a more important use: to direct students to delve deeper into problems. As in other phases of computerized education, answers will be ungraded. Questions, in this context, are meant to help students to think better, and thus to improve reasoning, not to develop a grade.

A potential objection to use of computers follows from benefits that class discussions provide pupils. A difficulty for computers seems to be their emphasis upon individual instruction that eliminates exchanges between students. Class discussion, however, will predominate in seminars and workshops. These will form a crucial element in computerized education. Moreover, students will be taking seminars in subjects that appeal to them. This will enable them to become better involved in the dialogues. Teachers who lead seminars and workshops will also have more time to develop these projects.

Nonetheless, instruction that is done individually can provide some of the positive features of discussions by other means. Programmers can film sessions with students responding to questions, but edit the films allowing the pace to move rapidly to foster student interest. At any point, the computer program could stop the film and request the student to respond to the questions. Either the computer could comment on the reply immediately or students could compare their replies with answers other students introduced subsequently in the film. Sometimes, a question could be proposed, and pupils could be asked by the computer to give their answers. After that, the computers could provide examples of how other students have answered the question, and students could compare them side-by-side with their own answers.

Moreover, computers have two advantages over ordinary classroom recitations. Students will be able to respond to all questions and answers will be given privately. Not every one of thirty students in a classroom can participate vocally in every recitation. Time is always scarce; as one student takes time to respond, every other pupil has less time available. All students in computerized education will be able to reply to every question.

Both shy and slow students are hesitant to voice their opinions voluntarily in class recitations for fear their peers will ridicule them and their answers. Sometimes these worries are justified. Computers are private. When students are formulating their responses, they don't need to be afraid of how they will appear before others. For some students, this will be crucial in helping them develop their thinking skills.

Computers can also be programmed to provide sufficient time to allow students to think out their answers. "Wait time" can vary and be adapted to the ability of the student. Sufficient time will always be available to aid pupils to profit from thought provoking questions.

What has been said thus far in this chapter explains how computers can develop higher order thinking in social studies types of classes. Mathematical reasoning has a somewhat different form. One crucial key to mastering advanced thinking in mathematics is found in the student's ability to solve "word problems." These provide an important step beyond simple calculations. Initially, students must learn to arrive at solutions to basic problems such as:

The more important question is whether the child can understand how to solve a word problem with the same figures:

Mary wants to buy a chair that costs eighty-nine dollars, but the most she can afford is eighty dollars. A few days later the store advertises a sale and says that everyone buying furniture will receive a fifteen per cent discount. Can she now afford the chair? How much will it now cost her?

This problem, of course, is elementary, but the same basic difficulties are present in all word problems whatever their complexity. Children must make the jump from knowledge of unadorned mathematics to the more important understanding of how to solve problems that contain words. These bring students into the world of higher order thinking, an essential step to master mathematics.

Some students, especially the better ones, have no difficulty in immediately adapting to word problems. Bright students usually find them interesting and absorbing. Their natural curiosity impels them to try to find solutions. Other students, however, find word problems to be a daunting barrier. They need individual instruction and some must begin at the simplest level. They can be taught, however, to make advances in solving word problems. It takes patience and time. Teachers have patience, but they seldom have enough time to help all students fully. Computers have both time and patience.

Teaching higher order thinking to pupils with the greatest difficulty in mathematical problems requires individual instruction. Every incorrect answer by a student can be quickly analyzed by the computer. Some errors may suggest merely a calculation slip. The correct answer to the problem about Mary's chair is $75.65. An answer of "$74.65" would be recognized by the computer as merely a computational error, and the student would be asked to check on the figures.

Other errors will show a more fundamental problem. Sometimes one incorrect answer may be insufficient to diagnose the type of error. The computer can provide more questions and address possibilities until it finds the key to the mistake. It can then concentrate on providing a remedy for the difficulty. A computer has unique advantages in teaching students to solve these problems because of its ability to be an individual tutor combined with its infinite patience and capacity to keep students interested through rewards.

Computers will be able to break problems into small segments and to formulate questions. They will take students through each level, repeatedly and with many problems if necessary, until pupils begin to understand better. A human teacher could do the same if he or she had only one child in class.

Geometry is a form of mathematics that requires extensive use of higher order thinking. The Congressional Office of Technology has commented on one computer program that has been developed to teach the subject. It illustrates some possibilities of computerized education.

The Geometry Tutor is an intelligent tutoring system that employs audit trails and is currently under study at Carnegie- Mellon University's Advanced Computer Tutoring Project. It provides instruction in proving geometry theorems and focuses on teaching students to problem solve and to plan when they prove theorems. According to the authors of the Geometry Tutor, these skills are seldom emphasized in a standard geometry curriculum. Students often complete a geometry course with only a modest ability to generate proofs and little deep understanding of the nature of proofs. The Geometry Tutor monitors students while they are actually engaged in solving the problems and provides instruction and guidance during the problem solving process. Students do not have to wait until their papers are corrected to receive feedback. Feedback is immediate, precise, instructionally relevant, and based on a more thorough analysis of problem solving behavior than would be possible with one teacher and a classroom full of students. The Geometry Tutor was initially tested on a few high school students, some who had no geometry instruction and some who had just completed a high school geometry course. After 10 hours of instruction, all students were able to solve problems that their teachers considered too difficult to assign to their classes. In fact, a student who had almost failed geometry was successful and the students considered their time on the computer as fun.⁶¹

This provides a graphic example of the basic contention of this chapter - computers can develop higher order thinking.

This chapter began with a comment that critics complain about a lack of instruction in schools that can develop better thinking. Educators should not decry the inadequacy of teaching thinking skills under the difficult conditions that teachers face today. Rather, they should express sad astonishment that the preeminent teaching tool of all ages is being neglected. Computerized education could help schools make giant strides in their efforts to produce students who can use advanced thinking.

Computers, properly used, can reconstruct the entire educational system in the United States and make American students competitive with pupils everywhere. Even if the price of this advanced educational system were substantially higher, it would be worth it to the nation. Consequently, the primary reason schools should adopt computerized education is not to save money, but to improve learning. Nonetheless, full use of computers will eventually bring substantial monetary savings.

For those who are seeking reasons why computerized education is impossible, a seemingly unanswerable objection is the cost of millions of new computers, software and new wiring for school buildings. A computer must be provided for every student and school budgets are already stretched to the absolute limit. Opponents of computerized education will object that these costs are prohibitive.

What will computerized education cost? An important contributor to the widespread use of computers has been the spectacular increase in power and speed that has been coupled with lower and lower cost. If automobiles had progressed the way computers have, it would be possible to buy a car that sped along at over five hundred miles an hour for five hundred dollars. The price of computers, which had been dropping sharply for several years, plummeted thirty-five percent in 1992 and another eighteen percent in 1993. Though future price reductions will probably be less dramatic, they will continue. With these reductions, a legitimate price estimate of one thousand dollars would provide a suitable machine and allow for some unexpected contingencies. It should be noted that although each student will need an individual machine for their instruction, it is not necessary to have the total number of computers equal the total number of students. Class hours can be staggered and timing of seminars could be taken into account (by other computer programs) to reduce the number of machines in a school.

The cost of software is hard to determine, but it is certain that competition will quickly lessen this expenditure as more schools embrace computerized education. To this must be added costs of file servers, special computer paraphernalia including modems, multimedia equipment and improved wiring. The total cost will probably not exceed two thousand, four hundred dollars per student. Computers, file servers and software should last for six years, and improved wiring is a one time cost. Based on these figures, the cost to the schools would be approximately four hundred dollars per year per student over the six year period, a tiny sum to spend for the benefits that will accrue. The lack of total significance of this figure becomes more apparent when contrasted with what inferior education is costing America business today.

Remedial education in industry is a multi-billion dollar undertaking today. The article, cited above in The New York Times, placed the cost at about thirty billion dollars per year. According to those figures, it is costing for each of the forty million students in schools today the equivalent of $750 per year, almost twice the estimated cost of four hundred dollars per student per year for computerized education. Those savings will be delayed because the present educational system has burdened the nation with twenty-five million illiterates who still must be helped. Nonetheless, substantial dollar savings will eventually result and make costs of computerized education seem even less important.

Business obviously is willing to contribute to improved education as their thirty billion dollar expenditure shows. The difficulty until now has been that major improvements are scarce, and this condition discourages industry from increasing their assistance to schools. When American schools are graduating students who are prepared educationally, business will be able to achieve meaningful savings because expenditures they make to provide remedial education will diminish sharply. Business wants these savings, and if they could see some promise that schools will improve, they will be willing to pay for it through additional taxes.

Machines, software and wiring are capital expenditures, and the money needed would be raised as money for other capital costs is generated. I believe that when the American public becomes aware of what is possible through full use of computers, they will support increased funding. In addition, however, other savings will lessen expenditures further, and will eventually make computerized education cost efficient. These savings must also be considered.

• 1. Reduction in cost of substitute teachers: In Chapter 16 the elimination of substitute teachers in computer schools was detailed. This will bring an immediate dollar savings. Substitute teachers cost schools about two percent of their annual budget. If the average student cost is five thousand dollars per year, one hundred dollars per year will be saved from eliminating substitute teachers, or, by itself, about one quarter of the total yearly cost of computerized education.
• 2. Reduction of Non-teaching Personnel: Smaller schools combined with students who are finding education more enjoyable will reduce discipline problems, which are costly for schools today. Improved discipline will make life easier and better for teachers, but will also lessen the number of non- teaching employees that will be needed. Disciplinary and security personnel will be decreased. Truancy and the need for personnel to track down truants will also be diminished. Non-teaching personnel must provide substitute teachers throughout the system. This includes those who must find and sign up subs and those who must complete the daily chore of making sure that every class is covered. When substitute teaching is eliminated, some lessening of this staff will be possible. Computers will cut paperwork not only for teachers, but also for schools. This will also reduce the number of non-teaching personnel needed.
• 3. Less Vandalism: Schools are damaged. Repairs cost money. Better discipline will save substantial amounts of money.
• 4. Better Use of School Buildings: Savings will be realized eventually because buildings will be used more efficiently, and fewer classrooms will be needed. At present, schools are used at close to 100% capacity from 8:30 AM until 3:00 PM for about nine months of the year, and at a sharply lower rate during the other months. Computer schools, could be open from 6:00 AM until 9:00 PM for twelve months of every year. Older students would be more likely to opt for later or earlier hours if they wanted to work part time. Schools usually avoid staggered hours today because of scheduling, supervision and teaching constraints. Computers will make these difficulties less important. Students wishing to avail themselves of later hours will be prepared to require less monitoring, as could be expected from those students who are more mature. Effective self directed learning is always desirable in education, and this will be another opportunity for advanced students to achieve this goal. Any student who is unable to work without a monitor will forego classes taken at unusual hours. Classrooms could be monitored by video cameras, but that would be for safety reasons.
• 5. Less Busing: Schools will be much smaller and will be located much closer to homes of students as was explained in Chapter 21. Busing has become a major expense in recent years and proximity of homes to schools will lessen costs. Since some teachers will provide different seminars than other instructors, some students may wish to take the opportunity to attend sessions in other schools. These will be for limited periods, however, and public transportation can be used by students who attend from different schools.
• 6. Reduced Textbook Costs: Although printed textbooks will continue, they will often be smaller, be used less and be of diminished importance than at present. Many will be replaced. One small CD-ROM disk can provide as much text as several books. In 1991 World Library published over 950 works of authors from Plato to Poe on one disk. In 1994 they brought out a revised version, still on only one disk, that contained 1750 titles plus multi media additions and included the complete Bible. As the inexorable advances in computer technology take place. CD-ROM's may be nearing obsolescence. They will be replaced, probably intitially by Digital Video Disks (DVD) that will bring at least a tenfold increase in storage capacity. Although remuneration of authors and profit for publishers should be about the same for books or disks, a large part of the expense of books is for paper and printing. With computer disks, the cost of material is minuscule. Savings will also accrue from the reduced expenses of storage, transportation and disposal. Use of paper, ink and printing of textbooks also limits their flexibility. A substantial number of textbooks must be printed because of the initial costs. When an error is discovered in the text as has happened occasionally in recent years, the error can only be erased by destroying the book. With CD-ROM or DVD technology, the basic cost of the material is insignificant compared to the cost of textbooks. Moreover, DVD's will eventually be alterable, just as other software can be readily changed without discarding the disks. As new information becomes available, it can be added quickly. Changes can be made by telephone lines and modems. One recommendation of a Commission studying education that Ross Perot headed in Texas was to reduce the time for texts used from eight years to from four to six years.⁶² That will never be an issue with software since it will be updated continually.
• 7. Better Teacher Morale: An important source of saving in computerized education is difficult to quantify - improved morale among teachers. Under present conditions, teachers must contend with many pupils who are ill prepared to do the necessary work because they have gotten behind in an earlier class. That poses an insurmountable and devastating obstacle for someone sincerely trying to help children to learn. Teachers must also contend with discipline problems that are magnified because students are unable to advance in school and seek other outlets for their need to succeed. Poor morale and consequent burnout contributes to turnover among teachers. Turnover is a major expense among businesses and is costly for schools also although it is often overlooked. Poor morale also eventually leads to higher medical costs for many teachers. Better morale will bring important monetary savings to school systems although they are hard to quantify.
• 8. Reducing Crime: The cost of crime and prisons in the United States is astronomical. The connection between illiteracy and crime was noted above. The "social dynamite" that James Bryant Conant saw as the result of inferior education has resulted in riots only in the inner cities. Middle class citizens, secure in their enclaves, rue the damage and bloodshed, but the violence hasn't yet hurt them or their families or their homes. Eventually, they too will suffer from mob ferocity unless something is done about an education system that is embittering its victims. America can and must eliminate growing class distinctions based on education. Computers can educate everybody. Failure to do this will cost the nation more in dollars than can be imagined. The damage will not remain only in the inner cities where many casualties from inferior education now suffer, but will flood into other areas.

The cost of converting American education to computerized education is not large under any system of accounting that considers what the present system is costing the nation. In addition, however, actual dollar savings will reduce these initial costs appreciably and will eventually generate true savings over present practices. In summation, the goal of establishing computerized education is not primarily to save money. Nonetheless, that will be an important result.

The ultimate value of any innovation depends on whether it can generate similar results when used in another location. Scientists refer to this transference as replication. Whatever the innate excellence of any improvement, its worth is severely diminished unless it can be duplicated or replicated. This characteristic is especially important in education where new methods are desperately needed.

Highly creative teachers struggle continually to improve the educational system. This leads to new and original methods of teaching in individual classes with excellent results. When a promising new teaching method is developed, it often comes to the attention of the authorities. They want the better method to be copied to bring the gains to other classes, and they often try make it known to other teachers. When an attempt is made to have other teachers emulate the new approach in other classes or different schools, the results often fall short of expectations and hopes.

The teacher who devised the new program can use his or her unique method with different students and in other schools. If other teachers who try to use the method achieve inferior results, something is different in the classrooms of the teacher who is successful, and those who are unable to reach the same success. These crucial divergences must reside within the teachers, not the students.

The problem that has reappeared often in this book, the varied talents found in millions of teachers, is again the culprit. The basic hindrance to replication in education is that teachers are different, and education is dependent upon their individual skills. These differentiations between instructors prevent many valuable techniques being repeated except on a limited scale, if at all.

Some differences among teachers are obvious. For example, one teacher may have more skills in keeping a class interested in the material being taught. Another may be skilled in encouraging students to feel they can learn. A third may be better able to diagnose weaknesses in students from answers given. These are only a few of innumerable diverse traits that a skilled observer might deduce from watching teachers. Also present are other subtle variations that observers can't recognize and other teachers can't copy. The number of possible critical differences between one teacher and another is virtually unlimited.

When researchers in sciences perform experiments they must control for elements that may affect outcomes, but may differ according to the subjects. For example, to judge which of two academic classes is more successful, the testers must ensure that the intelligence levels of the subjects in the two classes are approximately the same, or else they must account for those differences called variables when evaluating the outcome. Failure to do this results in poor research with flawed or meaningless conclusions.

Researchers need to control as many variables as possible when arranging any type of experiment. In evaluating teaching methods, the differences among teachers need to be accounted for. Unfortunately, among the staggering numbers of variations, many are unknown or unrecognized. This inability to control many variables makes it impossible for researchers to pinpoint exactly what teacher characteristics are necessary to make a new program succeed. The result is that an idea that one teacher uses successfully fails to help others, and researchers are unable to determine exactly why one teacher is successful and the others are not.

Hindrances to replicating individual classes are multiplied when attempts are made to duplicate new forms of schools. Difficulties are increased because many teachers and officials are part of the new undertaking. Consequently, the number of variables is expanded.

Besides the individual differences, another important element is usually present when radically new ventures are attempted. Many people, especially innovators, benefit from an intense drive that motivates them when they are embarking upon something new and exciting. That same drive and excitement is absent in others who merely try to imitate what has already been accomplished. New schools usually begin with one or a few zealous and creative teachers or administrators who are driven by a new idea. These innovators then convince other teachers and authorities of the value of the system, and that the new program can assist education. After this intense groundwork is completed, the new maneuver is tried. Often it succeeds.

Publication of A Nation At Risk in 1983 intensified the search for new methods, and many original teaching practices have been started in the last ten years. Many of these new schools have been successful. They have achieved noteworthy results and often receive publicity that is nationwide in scope. The TV networks often do stories on them. National magazines do the same. Enough new programs are available to keep the media occupied because of the many ground breaking attempts.

These novel learning environments are seldom repeated. If they are tried elsewhere, results often fall short of those in the originating program. Few new experiments go much beyond the school or district where they begin. The reason is simple: other teachers and authorities in other schools lack the individual characteristics and founding zeal of people driving the original accomplishments. Consequently, the new schools cannot be repeated with equal success.

I mentioned above that the introduction of blackboards seems to be the main innovation that has had universal acceptance in education in the last hundred years. They were a good idea, of course, but reformers have proposed many good ideas during that same time. Blackboards were accepted because they are independent of the individual traits of teachers. They are purely physical and can be used by all teachers. They are unaffected by individual talents and skills.

While the extreme difficulty of replicating new and innovative programs is a severe hindrance in making drastic changes in today's educational picture, easy replication is a prominent advantage of computerized education. This system is not dependent upon the varied skills and talents of teachers and administrators, but upon software.

Innovation can be duplicated since software can be the same in all computers. Teachers, working with programmers, can and will develop new programs. The combination of the resources of the two groups will create radically new and exciting breakthroughs in learning. When a new program proves successful in one classroom, it will bring equal benefits in another, just as the same teacher can succeed with his or her teaching method in different classes and schools. A computer program that is able to teach well will never lose its value. It will not retire or die, but will only be improved.

The capability of being replicated is apparent in the Florida at-risk programs. Judy Jones began her program in 1987 in Vero Beach. Within four years the program had appeared in twenty other schools systems within Florida, and in other schools outside Florida. Duplication of ideas is rare in schools, and new educational ideas ordinarily don't spread that rapidly. Not only was the computer system duplicated throughout the state, but the results in other schools were equally impressive, another rare phenomenon in education.

The ability of computer teaching to be duplicated exactly in other locations differs from rigidity; computerized education will have unequalled versatility. A technique that can successfully teach many pupils in different schools may still not be perfect for every student. Needs of students will determine the programs used. When a pupil does not learn, the computer will know it and will often be able to select another method.

The replicability of computerized education will add a new asset to schooling that will become ever more valuable as improvements in computers and software continue their inexorable advances.

Society stresses punishment as the remedy for crime. That cure is usually ineffective, but when terrorized citizens demand more cells, the government complies. It spends staggering sums to build prisons, yet lawlessness continues. If punishment could change evils, America with its unchallenged record of the most jail cells per citizen would also be the most law abiding nation on earth. The futility of changing society merely by increasing jail time is particularly evident in the inner cities. A huge percentage of these residents spend some time locked up, but crime in the inner cities is worse than in other areas.

People everywhere envy the freedom of Americans. Illegal immigrants use their lives as a stake in a gamble to achieve it, believing that if they succeed, they will then have a new hope for happiness. For many Americans who live in the inner cities, there is no hope, new or old. Their supposed benefits of freedom are illusory. In their world, despair rules. They aren't educated and so they can't get jobs beyond the most menial and low paying, and there aren't many of those. Without jobs they can't earn money. Without money, they endure living conditions that are deplorable. Perhaps the worst aspect is that the affluence of others confronts them daily on television, but they can't have it. They would like to enjoy the pleasures offered on the screen, but most can never have enough money unless they steal or deal drugs. Is it surprising that crime is so rampant among the poorly educated?

The problems are cancerous and will continue to grow until something meaningful is done. Conant's warning remains alive because the conditions have not improved. Schools in the slums, in his terminology, have deteriorated further since he wrote, intensifying the crisis, while better education remains the essential precondition to any improvement.

The letter (Chapter 4) appearing in Ann Lander's column about a Philadelphia school graphically described the chaos that challenges school systems in large cities. Order and discipline have vanished. Trying to teach in that atmosphere had demora;lizedthe Philadelphia instructor who probably began his or her career with a positive and idealistic attitude. Youth in those schools don't even have that good fortune to start optimistically. They are feel hopeless about education from the beginning.

When discouraged students encounter disheartened teachers in a hopeless environment, results are foreordained. Inner city schools spew out tens of thousands of students every year whose illiteracy would have seemed impossible outside an impoverished third world nation only a few years ago. In any advanced nation except the United States, this condition is unthinkable.

Something can be done. Despite the formidable obstacles, two reasons provide hope: the presence of dedicated teachers and the innate desire to learn.

Teachers are desperate to help students as the Philadelphia instructor made clear. The poor education of so many students, however, shows that teachers alone can't change present conditions, regardless of how hard they try. A basic alteration in present schooling practices must occur before they can succeed. When that happens, the dedication of these thousands of inner city teachers will make a difference.

The second reason for a possible improvement in education is the innate desire to learn that is present in all young people. This desire can be squelched and made unproductive in stifling environments. Conditions in inner city schools like the Philadelphia teacher described obliterate academic attempts, but the desire still exists because it is innate.(Chapter 3)

Blame for poor learning and the environment that makes it inevitable, is easily heaped on students. "If only the kids would behave, everything would be fine," goes the argument. "If students would only try, they could then learn." Youths are viewed as the culprits, who could change schools by becoming better pupils.

Many and probably most children coming into inner city schools can't fight against the crushing obstacles that confront them. Almost every entering pupil will quickly join in the general malaise. Otherwise they would have to oppose the whole cultural flow, and that would take unimaginable effort. Most youths wouldn't attempt it even if they knew how to do it. To expect them to fight entrenched student mores is hopeless. Schools are supposed to train and mold students, not be reformed by them. Schools must create a new atmosphere.

Youngsters didn't devise the system that defrauds them of learning, but they are trapped in it and by it. Most students were behind the first day they entered school and never had a realistic opportunity to catch up. . The schools knew their condition, but couldn't provide a way for them to overcome that initial and basic weakness. As a consequence, poor education will harass them throughout their lives and will do the same to their children.

So whose fault is it? That is unimportant. Who can improve it? That is important. The kids can't do it. The teachers can't do it. Not even the principals can do it by themselves. Somebody in higher authority must make the major changes that will allow children to learn. Somebody must take responsibility for providing a suitable learning atmosphere for these students.

If authorities are ever to revamp inner city schools, they must correct one horrendous condition that now predominates in these schools - lack of order and discipline. Without these assets, no school can provide a suitable atmosphere for learning. No wish for academic advancement can ever be fostered without the obvious possibility that it can occur. Where order and discipline are lacking, learning is impossible. Present remedies for poor discipline do nothing. Establishing rules does not create order. Even adding punishments fails.

Size alone does not make discipline impossible, but if a large institution loses control, enough disruptive student leaders are always available to undermine any serious effort to reimpose it. Changing the attitudes of these leaders is also close to impossible while they hold court in their accustomed milieu. They, too, are hopelessly behind in school work and can only achieve a form of "success" by disrupting the school. They won't easily give up that sole claim to status.

Inner city systems, as they seek necessary changes, need to study how private schools foster and maintain discipline and order. Their first advantage over public schools is that they are usually smaller, but they have an additional and more powerful asset beyond their size - they accept and enroll only students who have an interest in learning. This sets a tone for the school and gives authorities the power of peer pressure to aid discipline. When peer pressure fosters responsible behavior, other obstacles disintegrate. If it generates unruly behavior, everything is lost.

Private schools benefit from another feature: they can enforce discipline. Students want to attend the school, and principals can, quietly and unobtrusively, keep in reserve the ultimate weapon - expulsion. If a student in a private school grossly violates discipline, the student can be expelled and must then attend the public school system. The ability to dismiss a student is a potent weapon that private school principals gain by having, though they seldom exercise it or even allude to it.

Order and discipline must be incorporated into public schools. While the major obstacle to regaining discipline is school size, even if authorities wish to build smaller schools, it will take years to accomplish. Since reestablishing order is impossible when it has been lost in large schools, some means of downsizing within the present schools must be found. Students could then be offered the prospect of achieving an education. They still have the innate desire to learn, even when it is hidden. This will enable some students to choose an option where learning is possible when it is offered to them. If they found that they were learning they would have an incentive to remain in that environment. It also would be a stimulus for other students to go where they could learn. Public schools would then have the advantages of private schools:small size and peer pressure to behave.

Advocates of "Choice" maintain that the way to obtain the benefits of private schools is to allow parents to choose to send their children to non-public schools. In theory, this option is very attractive. The negative side is that sufficient numbers of private schools will never be started in inner cities to teach all students even if "Choice" were to be universal. Most inner city parents would be without the financial means to send their children to the private schools that will spring up in other parts of the cities. For this reason, "Choice" cannot be a complete solution for the needs of the inner cities.

As powerful as computers are, they alone cannot change inner city education, but they can strengthen and augment a movement that has begun in a few places. Schools sometimes spin off part of their student body into mini schools, within the same school building, but separate from the rest of the student body. Computerized education will make this step practical in more locations and will improve the chances for success. These schools within a school will help authorities reimpose order and discipline.

Computerized education will allow students to have choices of many classes without having individual teachers for each subject. Since computerized education makes it possible to break the student enrollment into appreciably smaller groups, systems can establish mini schools or learning schools with fewer students and without unrealistic expenses that small classes would have formerly required. Minimum requirements of levels of learning needed by entering students will not be an obstacle. Computers, even with the software available today, can start the educational process at the pre-reading level. Students will need only the wish to get an education, and the willingness to try, while separated from many current obstacles.

Parents and students could be notified of the beginning of a new mini school. Parents and child will both have to be agreeable. Participation will be completely voluntary, and parents might have to agree to waive some legal rights. Some parents and students will immediately opt for an environment more conducive to learning. The enticing cachet of computers will be a powerful impetus for students to want to be in this type of school. Pupils will, therefore, enter with at least the beginning of a suitable attitude. They will be aware that acceptable behavior is a requirement to remain. The public establishments could use the same carrot-stick technique of private institutions. Learning by computers is the carrot that will appeal to the innate desire. Gross violations of discipline will not be tolerated, and infractions of the disciplinary code will result in the stick - a return to the regular school. The possibility of expulsion will be available in the public schools. Small schools with only students who wish to be there will create a totally different environment - one in which learning can take place. Discipline among those students will be integral just as in private schools. In that atmosphere, the demonstrated ability of computers to make learning enjoyable will be a sustaining force.

With computerized education, teachers will be working in a totally different ambience from the one that now oppresses them. They will be guiding students who have an incentive to behave and to learn. They will be facilitators of learning and will have time to provide guidance and encouragement that will be important for many inner city youth.

Students will have another asset, which is unavailable today - the sense of success and achievement that accompanies computerized education as outlined in Chapter 12. Accomplishment is important for all students, but crucial for inner city youths. Kids who start behind and fall continually further back cannot have had much success. Teachers can use their skills to build upon the accomplishments of these pupils. Succeeding is absolutely necessary to provide self confidence and self esteem, and many children, for the first time in their lives, will succeed in an academic activity.

It is possible that a mini school could be located outside the main school when discipline has degenerated to an extreme degree. Community centers will provide possible locations. Many compromises are possible. Only the establishment of a learning environment where kids can learn is important.

An almost automatic source of new pupils for "learning schools" might be pupils entering the school. Every year a new class begins. Schools and children will profit if new pupils are offered the opportunity to attend a school where they can learn before they become enmeshed in the crippling educational surroundings of a school without order and discipline. Although loath to admit it, most kids prefer order and discipline in their lives, and many will choose that option if it is available. One successful mini-school could be forerunner of many more. One success could be duplicated innumerable times. It could mark the beginning of the radical changes needed in inner city schools because of the inherent replicability of computerized education.

A change of this magnitude may be criticized as impractical and utopian. Critics could protest that the plan might fail, a usual and convenient objection to anything that is new and untried. Obviously, outcomes cannot be guaranteed without a trial. What is known is that the present system absolutely does not and cannot educate students. Moreover it has also been proved that computerized education has been able to educate at-risk students in other locations.

Another objection might be raised. If students who want to learn are transferred, only those students who most despise formal education will remain, and the condition of the main school will be worse. Anyone suggesting that difficulty should evaluate it realistically. Inner city schools are terrible today, and it would be difficult for them to get much worse by moving some students. Moreover, eventually it will be possible to change many of those students who most renounce learning today. Some could gradually be led to want an education, especially if they found that transferees were both learning and enjoying it. Despite their present attitudes, they still have the same innate desire to learn.

Something radical must be tried in the inner city school systems. Without computerized education that will allow multitudes of smaller schools, probably no way can be devised to make inner city schools into educational institutions instead of unstable and dangerous temporary dumping grounds for unhappy and delinquent youth. The present system has failed utterly to provide the necessary education and no change is in sight without a drastic overhaul. Students are treated unfairly if authorities keep them in a school where learning is impossible. They should have the opportunity to receive a better education. Computers offer the best possibilities, perhaps the only possibilities. Obviously, the lives of millions depends upon finding a solution.

Sally Brown is thirteen, blond with a cute nose and an engaging smile. She's entered puberty. Boys and dances and parties are on the minds of most girls her age, but social affairs are not part of Sally's life. She is seriously handicapped; her life is different. She lacks the control of movements of her upper extremities that most people have. Her arms sometimes jerk haphazardly and she can't speak clearly. When other people see Sally, they often don't know how to react. They don't blame her, yet there is a certain hesitancy, perhaps even fear, about someone so different. Sally agonizes over her condition, but can do nothing about it. She'll never lose her handicap; it will be her lifelong burden.

The suffering brought by serious handicaps usually comes through no fault of those afflicted. They may have been born with a genetic defect, or may have been injured in some accident that might have befallen any of us, but happened to them. Sally is less concerned about the philosophical meaning of why she received her handicap, than what it means to her - a life that is always unlike and apart from most others.

Although she doesn't possess a superior intellect, Sally has average intelligence and can learn as well as most children; with extra work she might be above average in some subjects. She doesn't have much incentive to work hard, however, because she sees herself as an outcast in society. Many other people see her the same way. If Sally had lived in the seventeenth century, she would have been considered retarded and a hopeless cripple; her family would have hidden her away in shame. We today know that this treatment was not only cruel, but wasteful and inane. Consequently, authorities insist that children like Sally go to school. They set up programs called Special Education where children with handicaps can acquire basic learning in academic subjects, and sometimes in vocational skills. Nonetheless, children like Sally are still deprived. They interact in school only with other handicapped children. This segregation accentuates the wide chasm that separates them from students who lead more normal lives.

Ordinary children who only see Sally from a distance, may easily decide that Sally is not only different, but inferior. At least, they can't understand Sally. Consequently, they probably will feel uncomfortable around the Sally Browns or the other handicapped people with whom they never interacted during their formative years. This is a normal reaction to segregation, and is unfortunate for the handicapped, but also deprives children without disabilities. They don't get to meet and to know people like Sally. They never understand disabled children as other feeling, caring, hurting, loving human beings. Thus Special Education, with all its merits, may also intensify some problems of handicapped children.

Critics have found that Special Education is also the root of another difficulty. School authorities have a tendency to overexpand the number of children classified as handicapped. It is often easier for schools and for teachers to segregate children with difficulties.

Unquestionably, disabled children today have advantages that their counterparts did not have in the seventeenth century, but still greater gains could be made if these children had additional contact with other children. Until recently, school authorities didn't seriously consider trying to put handicapped children into regular classrooms, an attitude not based on cruelty or lack of awareness of the emotional needs of these children, but on pragmatic reasons: handicapped children had unique requirements that seemed out of place in an ordinary classroom.

In the last half of the twentieth century, numbers of disabled Americans determined to try to enter fully into ordinary American life. Many ordinary citizens supported their efforts, and the federal government joined the movement. Laws were passed and incentives provided. New public buildings had to have entrances for the handicapped. Restrooms required suitable facilities. Sidewalks needed ramps where they crossed a street. Some public buses added means for the crippled to enter. Speakers were often accompanied by sign language translators for the hearing impaired. Traffic signs sometimes had sound for the visually impaired. These were expensive changes, but relatively easy to accomplish. Bringing all handicapped people, not just the crippled, the blind or the deaf, into society is immeasurably more difficult. Problems abound and solutions are evasive.

Advocates for the disabled felt that removing children from segregated Special Education classes would be advantageous, and that became one of their goals. Several laws were passed including The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which requires that all children be educated in the least restrictive environment. There are many questions about the meaning of "least restrictive environment" and how it should be applied to a particular child. Nonetheless, that is an objective that all schools in America today must strive to attain.

After these laws passed, a new movement began in schools. The underlying thrust was incorporated under the name "inclusion" - a movement to have all or most handicapped children included in regular classes rather than being in a separate section only with other handicapped children.

Almost everybody can agree that the goal is theoretically worthwhile and beneficial. When disabled children are included in mainstream classes, students with disabilities and those without, all gain in some way. Disabled children can begin to see themselves as part of society. Students without handicaps, who need as an important part of their maturing to learn to accept both themselves and others, can become better educated about those who are unlike themselves.

In a suburb of San Francisco, California, in a school that prides itself on being among the leaders in educational reforms, Jane Robinson instructs seventh graders. She became a teacher because she wanted to help children learn and progress, and she is strongly behind the several innovative changes that the school board has begun in recent years. She hasn't had much contact with Sally Brown who is in the Special Education section in her school, but she agrees that Sally and other handicapped children should be given extra help - as much help as possible.

When the principal of the school tells Ms. Robinson, however, that Sally Brown will now become a member of her Social Studies class, idealized theory suddenly competes with pragmatic reality. This instructor, despite her love of children and her desire to help, hesitates to have Sally in her class. While Sally Brown is gaining, other members of the class may suffer. Ms. Robinson has her hands full now. She knows that there are several students in her class who already need extra help and she can't squeeze out enough time for them. Sally will take more of her attention and her present students will receive less. Ms. Robinson feels that as good as a less restrictive environment would be for Sally, it also will impinge on the rights of other class members. She objects to Sally coming to her class.

Thus the struggle for inclusion faces a serious and honest obstacle from a very sincere person. Jane Robinson still wants Sally to succeed, but the rights and needs of her other students are also important. Today's crisis with huge numbers of children falling behind accentuates the problems.

Moreover, inclusion in present classes is not always an unmitigated boon for handicapped children. When they have difficulty keeping up in the mainstream classes, more attention is focused on their handicap. This is one reason many parents of disabled children also oppose full inclusion.

Sometimes an attempt to offset some of the objections to inclusion is made by having a Special Education teacher sit beside and aid the handicapped child in the regular class. This solves some difficulties but creates additional ones. Other students are made even more aware that this child needs extraordinary help. Moreover, other students that the Special Education teacher might have helped may be deprived of the necessary attention, and there is never enough money to supply sufficient numbers of Special Ed teachers to help every child individually.

Many difficulties encountered by inclusion in today's schools will disappear if computers teach all students. Handicapped children can be educated in a least restrictive environment without interfering with the rights of others.

Individualized instruction, the foundation of so much of the value of computers in education, will be the key element. Students will be together in all classrooms, with consequent interaction that will allow each child to meet and know the other children. No student's learning, however, will be hindered by the needs or difficulties of any other pupil. Moreover, the weakness of those handicapped children who are also slower in learning for any reason, will not stand out. Only the Leader Teacher will be fully aware of how rapidly or how slowly the child is progressing in school work.

Beyond the individual instruction, the unequalled patience of computers will be a boon for the education of handicapped children. That forbearance will assist them to learn as rapidly and as effectively as is possible with the least trauma to their psyche and damage to their self esteem.

Handicapped children also will gain a familiarity with computers, machines that will aid them throughout their lives. Computers can offset many of their infirmities as no other machine can do. They will understand early that a computerized society need have fewer fears for them than a world without computers, due to the technical adaptability of the machines.

This adaptability will begin to aid them in their school years. For example, Sally Brown has difficulty controlling the movement of her tongue and arms, but her lower extremities are not affected. She could use her computer easily and effectively with her foot directing a mouse to control the keyboard. She might not type as fast as some other children, but well enough to complete successfully her education in the mainstream class. Her enhanced self confidence will provide her with a different view of her future life.

If Sally Brown could not speak at all, she could learn to manipulate the computer to make it speak for her. If Sally were completely paralyzed, she could be trained to use only her eye movements, or any muscle that she could move, to operate the computer. Even sucking and blowing air, which any person must be able to do to live, can be used to make a computer function. Although these machines are only in their infancy, it is possible that they will alter the lives of the handicapped perhaps more than that of any other group of people. With computerized education, handicapped children will enter this new world at an early age.

Special Education teachers will still be needed for handicapped children just as teachers will remain essential in all education. They will be Leader Teachers and their training and creativity will help find new ways of aiding these children to become continually more involved in the full academic schedule.

Sally Brown, who faces a difficult life under all conditions, will have her obstacles lessened with computerized education. She will be a member of mainstream classes with the benefits from that position. Perhaps most importantly, as she interacts with other students, they will begin to understand what a sincere, human and lovable person is Sally Brown.

In 1993, Somalia, tiny and impoverished, managed to frustrate the most powerful nation on earth. The bizarre tale began in 1992 when graphic TV pictures of suffering and malnutrition rampant in a small section of eastern Africa appeared on news broadcasts in the United States. Americans were horrified by the effects of starvation, particularly when the victims were babies and children. Voices were raised demanding or imploring help. With the approbation of a large part of its citizenry, the American government joined with the United Nations and sent troops to try to rescue Somalia's people from the ravages they were undergoing. It was humanitarian gesture with little or no self seeking on America's part. After a few weeks, the efforts seemed to be successful. TV pictures showed Somali children becoming better fed, and the effects of lawless bands of roaming thugs diminishing.

Then this appealing picture of Uncle Sam as the great hero unselfishly saving lives in a grateful third world nation suddenly fell apart. TV now brought a new spectacle. The Somalis were shooting the supposed benefactors, and dragging the dead bodies of American soldiers through the streets. Viewers of these scenes in American homes were appalled and perplexed. The unexpected and violent reactions in the very people they were trying to help indicated their efforts were apparently unappreciated. They had thought that the Somali people would realize that the foreigners were achieving what they had set out to do and what everybody wanted - feed people and save lives.

Americans, puzzled by this quick turn, overlooked an important element: Somalia is not a democracy. It had been controlled by a small group, and most ordinary people had nothing to say about what happened in daily events. Without some form of democracy, most citizens can't influence what occurs. A few powerful tyrants can control everything. In Somalia these were petty war lords, and their wishes were not necessarily those of the majority of people. These leaders had prospered while misery had been rampant in this impoverished nation. They did not want their fiefdoms destroyed.

They and their few henchmen soon began again to exercise their power, which had been briefly hidden when the foreign troops entered. As these despots once more prevailed, there was no opportunity for the ordinary people to have their desires heard or acted upon. Citizens of Somalia might prefer peace, might prefer to be fed, might prefer to live, but their ideas are irrelevant under a non-democratic form of government. Without democracy, wishes of common citizens matter little.

The solution should be easy. Set up a democracy and let the people decide what they want. Since most Somalis would benefit from democracy, they should quickly opt for that form of government if given the opportunity. Unfortunately for most people in Somalia and for the Americans who wanted to help them, it is impossible, at the present time, to set up a democracy there. The major obstacle may sometimes be overlooked - the nation has little education.

When the United States in the eighteenth century was laying the foundation for its new venture of government by the people, Thomas Jefferson warned of a danger: democracy could not succeed without an educated citizenry⁶³. His ideas are as valid today as when he wrote them. Neither Somalia nor any other uneducated third world nation can have democracy until that nation has education. Without some type of democracy, the war lords will continue to rule. Education does not guarantee democracy, but makes it possible and probably inevitable.

The United States has a similar, but potentially more difficult problem just a few miles away in the nation of Haiti. People there had attempted to establish a democracy. They had an election. They chose a president by ballot. Democracy had made a start, but it ended abruptly. The president was forced to flee, and hope of a republic became faint. The United States faced a dilemma: send in troops and reimpose the president, or allow the military in Haiti to rule. Troops were sent in, but a real and permanent solution is not possible, because the underlying problem in Haiti is the same as in Somalia: vast numbers of uneducated citizens.

In Somalia, the United States could and did simply withdraw its troops and leave. Not much was lost from the American viewpoint. The answer is not that simple in Haiti because of the geographical location. It is only a few miles away from the United States - close enough for rickety boats to make the crossing, and to pour out masses of these uneducated into American ghettos that were experiencing major problems before this new influx.

Haiti and Somalia are two examples of poorly educated nations that have gotten a lot of attention here in the United States because of their accidental connection with this country. There are, however, many other equally uneducated nations in the world with rampant poverty and consequent suffering. Education is essential in these locations. A 1990 World Bank report declared "Evidence is overwhelming that education improves health and productivity in developing countries, and that the poorest people benefit the most."

Just as teaching of millions of illiterates in America requires computers, education of hundreds of millions of illiterates in third world nations is impossible without these same machines. Just as merely placing computers in an inner city school would not be sufficient to solve all the problems, merely placing computers in Somalia or Haiti or in other backward nations will not solve all the difficulties there. Nonetheless, just as computers open a viable means of eliminating illiteracy in the United States, they can do the same in Somalia or Haiti or in any of scores of other third world nations.

In those countries with little education, a additional problem complicates future computerized learning: an educational infrastructure is missing, and must be established. Computers, however, will make it easier to develop that infrastructure because they can be used to educate a cadre of educators quickly and more easily than ever before possible. Annabell Thomas learned to read and write at age 56 with computers. In third world nations, many talented young adults are available who can also be taught to read and write by computers. They will then form the foundation of the needed educational infrastructure that will hasten the computerized education of the balance of the nation. Although nations controlled by a small band of war lords will not seek to educate the people, countries like Haiti or Somalia where other nations become involved, can be brought to a sufficient educational level to allow some form of representative government to take hold.

I noted earlier that when computers are proposed as a solution for America's educational difficulties, critics point to other wishful solutions that have not succeeded. In the international scene the same objection will be made. Some people thought that radio stations broadcasting lessons would solve the educational needs of children far from schools. That electronic approach helped, but didn't drastically change illiteracy. Computers, however, have a feature not available on radio or TV at present. Computers allow interaction between student and machine to ensure that the student never becomes bored or lost in the lesson, both of which will destroy the learning process.

Another obstacle for computerized education in third world countries is the language. Many of these nations not only have unique languages but they often have more than one. It will be impossible to translate computer programs into all these idioms. The solution here is that computer programs will be written or translated into the major languages such as English, Spanish, French, or German. Children, who can learn new languages easily, can be taught to read one of the major languages by the computer as they enter school. Colonialism obviously had many serious drawbacks, but it encouraged a second language among the educated element of the population. This could be the language upon which the education of the nation would be based. Simultaneously, individual programs can be developed for each nation to teach the specific language of the region, if that is desired, but the bulk of the education would be taught in the major language the schools choose. They can thereby use the computer programs that are available in those major languages.

South Africa is different from nations like Somalia, but education is also a major concern. While literacy is common in the white population and among some blacks, at least half of the black population is illiterate.

There are some interesting parallels with the demise of slavery in the United States and the abolishment of apartheid. The progress of South Africa has caught the approving attention of the world. When America freed its slaves in 1863, the world was also enthralled. To make these gains permanent, education of former slaves was essential. Education of former victims of apartheid is crucial today in South Africa.

When slavery was abolished in the United States, educating all the children was probably impossible. Failure to provide effective schooling for former slaves and their dependents led inevitably to the rampant difficulties in the inner cities of the United States today. In South Africa, however, education for the nation is possible. Full computerized schooling could teach every child and most adults in South Africa to read and to write. South Africa has what is lacking in Somalia: an educational infrastructure. With the portion of their population that is highly literate, South Africa can more easily supply the human personnel that will make the computer system effective.

As in America, computerized education in South Africa would have benefits both for illiterates and for those with an education. Computers could make up for the years that poorly educated children lost under apartheid, but could also enhance and augment the further learning of educated school children, white and black. Nonetheless, the salient need is education of the uneducated. Wherever apartheid has left a legacy of illiteracy, computers could bring literacy.

Computerized education in third world nations will produce another advantage: the machines and programs will be available after the regular school day. Therefore, adults will also be able to learn from the machines after the children have left school. The final result will be dramatic. For the first time in the history of the world, computers will bring what had never before even been considered because it was utterly impossible: virtually everybody on earth will learn to read and write.

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FOOTNOTES

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