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IP: panic in educators -- Computers Can Harm Young Children, U.S. Group Says
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 18:15:42 -0400
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Early exposure to computers stunts children's development and such technology should only be introduced after elementary school, a group of U.S. educators and psychologists said on Tuesday. The Alliance for Childhood, a private non-profit group that focuses on child development, said in a report that computers and the Internet prevent preschool children from interacting with each other and adults. ``Children need a healthy education, and computers cannot provide them with a healthy education because children need a living education -- with live people,'' said Joan Almon, a former preschool teacher and U.S. coordinator for the organization. The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars a year on new technology for elementary schools. In 1994, the Clinton administration said it would work with public schools to have them hooked up to the Internet by the end of this year. According to the report, in the last five years public schools have spent more than $27 billion in computer technology and related costs. As of late 1999, 95 percent of schools were connected, said a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education. Almon said some schools have cut back on teachers, library books, music and arts programs, and field trips to parks, while spending millions on computer hardware and software. ``Children are increasingly being denied warmth, artistic inspiration and understanding. Only a teacher can do that,'' Kim John Payne, a Massachusetts child psychologist, told Reuters in a phone interview. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-children-dc.html
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