“…the Technology Literacy Challenge by the Clinton administration.  This project aims to create citizenry comfortable in using computers not only for the purposes of calculating, programming and designing but also for the purpose of reading, writing and communicating.  It is an excellent case study of a national literacy project because the tremendous scope, significance, currency, and cost associated with such goals.  According to its sponsors, the large scale literacy project will offer all Americans equal access to an education rich in opportunities to use and learn about technology.  With such an education, the project’s sponsors claim graduates will be qualified for high-paying, high-tech jobs and thus have the means of achieving upward social mobility and economic prosperity within out increasingly technological culture.” 

            I chose this passage from the reading because I found it very interesting.  I find myself very skeptical of this idea.  I think it is a great gesture; every child with access to the internet and the best technologies sounds like a great plan.  However, I fell like it is too big of a promise to make.  I’m going to use my mom as an example, she is a literacy teacher and she is brilliant.  She has taken kids in the bottom 10% of their grade level and brought them to the top 5% with their reading and writing skills.  However, my mom isn’t that great with computers and technology.  I’m sure she could learn because she is a smart, educated woman, and most people would say that it is a generation thing, many people over 40 have the same issue with technologies. But, if this plan goes into effect within the next 15 to 20 years, my mom will still be teaching, and so will many others just like her.  So my point is, not only will the government have to spend money on the actual technology, but also on the education of teachers to properly teach it.

            I do like this plan because I think it would really benefit our kids, it just seems like a huge investment, and from what we have seen in past years education is not the main priority when it comes to government spending.  Hopefully though, this could be a turning point.  Maybe people will come to realize the value of a good, and more importantly equal, education.

“But if the project to expand technological literacy has been justified as a means of achieving positive social change and new opportunity, to date it has failed to yield the significant social progress or productive changes that many people have come to hope for. Indeed, in the American school system as a whole, and in the culture that this system reflects, computers continue to be distributed differentially along the related axes of race and socioeconomic status, and this distribution contributes to ongoing patterns of racism and to the continuation of poverty”. (pg.6)  

            I found this passage to bother me because the way they are trying to make the National project work, once again is involving racism. Why does the color of someone’s skin matter? If the National project is suppose to be a positive thing, then why aren’t the distributors being fair. If someone of a different nationality needs that computer, why not give it to him or her? Why does socioeconomic status matter? If the person’s economic status is low, he or she may never be able to afford a computer. So, how does that mean the National project is a positive change when it doesn’t look like they are being honest and fair to true, honest people. These people need to learn just as much as the person who has a higher socioeconomic status. Everything always comes down to RACE….WHY?

Q: In Educational issues, why is racism even an issue?