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From: marie@harvard.ARPA (Marie desJardins)
Newsgroups: net.college
Subject: Re: computer science and carpentry in high school
Message-ID: <255@harvard.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 7-Jan-85 12:57:02 EST
Article-I.D.: harvard.255
Posted: Mon Jan  7 12:57:02 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 8-Jan-85 05:13:29 EST
References: <398@hou2b.UUCP>
Organization: Aiken Computation Laboratory, Harvard
Lines: 34

> i've also seen the term techno-phobia used in articles on
> this topic.  how about a new term: techno-centric.  that
> could be an adjective to refer to technically oriented people
> believing that non-technically oriented people are significantly
> worse off than them.  the philanthropic techno-centric people
> will want to reach out and give a portion of their wonderful
> knowledge to people who otherwise wouldn't give a sh*t.  i'm
> just glad some carpenters didn't feel the need to define woodworking
> as a basic skill and force it into the high school curriculum.
> however, i also think that its nice that my high school did have
> woodworking shop for people who were interested in it.

I had to take 'shop' (wood- and metal-working) in junior high.  I also
had to take Home Economics.  And Art.  And Music.  Why not computer
science?  Agreed, probably many (most?) people won't need to know how to
program.  But it can't hurt.  And I think a large part of the goals of
such a course should be to teach people that computers aren't magic.
A case in point:  I recently went shopping at a Woodward & Lothrop
store.  As I was standing in line, something happened to the central
computer (it either went down or disconnected all the lines, I think).
But the people behind the sales counter absolutely panicked:  "Oh my
god, all the terminals are offline!  Look, there's an offline light!
What do we do?"  Not only were they totally incapable of figuring out
what was going on, but they were so dependent on The Computer that they
couldn't figure out that they could just write down the sales and enter
them later.  (Eventually, a floor manager came around and explained this
to them and they were simply amazed.)  The problem was that they simply
didn't understand what the cash register did!  They seemed to be really
afraid of the thing, and the fact that it wasn't working completely
threw them.  I think in cases like this, a little education would have
gone a long way.

	Marie desJardins
	marie@harvard