by Michael Hicks

Created on: September 25, 2009

The argument that Internet reading should not be granted "core skill" status is a valid one. I'd like to add another point to the debate that draws on an understanding of the historical context of public education. One asks, what is the purpose of school? Is it to develop (or assist the parents in developing) well-rounded individuals? Is it to supply competent workers to the labour market? Or is it simply a matter of truancy, keeping teens off the street who would otherwise be vandals? The truth is, there is an element of all three in schooling. Each pertains to the issue at hand.

The creation of well-rounded individuals requires just that, a well-rounded experience. Think back to the turn of the last century. The vast majority of the population existed in a rural context, and learned such skills as shooting, swimming, and farm-related tasks. The few afforded the luxury of schooling were introduced to new experiences and world views in order to enrich them. The aforementioned skills were not taught in school, because children already got them at him.

It's just like that with the internet. Why teach something kids do on their own anyway? There's no problem with honing the finer points of skill, or teaching proper research levels to those who want to prepare in a professional capacity, but including the internet in the daily curriculum seems like adding "planting crops" to the 1930's school day. It just isn't necessary.

In terms of training good workers, one must ask oneself just how jobs use the Internet. Industry, Commerce, Health services, Government and Military jobs all use computers to some extent. But few use them ubiquitously, and those that do provide thorough, in-house training programs requiring only cursory knowledge to begin with.

In terms of truancy, how many kids, faced with the wide avenues of the world wide web before them, will stay on the site the teacher assigned? The blatant reality is that the Internet is simply too much freedom to all kids at that developmental stage. There tends not to be any structure, and although software to provide this structure is available, the trend is for teachers to be unskilled in the employment of such software. To say nothing of the dangers and harmful content, the temptation to play games and 'goof off' is simply too difficult to resist.

School systems should focus on the core skills that make using the Internet possible, such as literacy, expository writing, and most importantly, critical thinking skills. The sacred duty of education in this information age should be to enable students, to the greatest extent possible, to filter, consider and critically assess the hordes of unfettered data being flung at them on a daily basis. "Don't believe everything you see on TV" must be carried over into this new Internet era, because there are as many harmful uses for the Internet as there are good ones, and arming kids with the ability to make good choices and recognize questionable ones will literally save lives.

Hearken back to the printing press. Suddenly ideas could be disseminated with an alacrity heretofore unseen, The result? A great awakening of learning and knowledge, but also great social stresses and strife because the people had trouble sorting through all the new information and were sometimes misled or drew mistaken conclusions. Kids today are in danger of information overload, and it's our job as educators to equip them to deal with just that.

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