Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpda!hptsug2!taylor From: mkhaw@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA (Mike Khaw) Newsgroups: comp.society Subject: Re: Computer Literacy: The Pigeonhole Principle Message-ID: <549@hptsug2.HP.COM> Date: 28 Sep 88 17:22:59 GMT References: <546@hptsug2.HP.COM> Sender: taylor@hptsug2.HP.COM Organization: Teknowledge, Inc., Palo Alto CA Lines: 26 Approved: taylor@hplabs I was pretty disgusted after reading the article, and I still am, but here's my 2 cents worth: 1) Lots of criticism, but none constructive, and no alternatives proposed. It's easy to take potshots, but not so easy to come up with good ideas, eh? 2) A lot of what the article said about "computer literacy" education could just as well be applied to other subjects taught in schools. A good deal of what we're taught is indoctrination in the culture we belong to. Suppose I attacked art education for requiring students to learn about perspective, human anatomy, and the history of art, instead of letting students simply "express their creativity"? I think that would be pretty silly. 3) The author(s?) didn't say it in so many words, but were levelling charges of "elitism". I'd rather have a meritocracy than "equality" achieved through mediocrity driven by some standard of ideological purity, which would simply install an elitism of ideology instead. 4) I find it ironic that this diatribe against bourgeois capitalism is taking place in media made possible by that very same capitalist system. Capitalism has its faults, but would a Marxist socialist system allow the same kind of criticism directed against it, or try to suppress it? Mike Khaw