From: New York
Date sent: Sat, 8 Feb 1997 13:57:56 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Internet Access "Coincidences"

[Response to previous unarchived message]

[Del.}report on obscenity access resulting from Arizona's rush to carry out Clinton's "every child on the Internet by age 12" should be widely read, and widely- circulated off-loop, as well.

Points to raise: The program was apparently all in place BEFORE Clinton's new "plan" was announced. AOL News THIS MORNING includes: "Clinton Pushes Internet: President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore teamed up electronically today to report a major advance in hooking up U.S. schools to the Internet and to announce federal grants to speed the process. [Remember: federal "grants" are tax-based] Co- starring with Clinton on the president's weekly radio broadcast, Gore said the Department of Education would award Technology Literacy Challenge Grants totaling $14.3 to Illinois, Mississippi and New Mexico. The grants are the first under a program that will spend $200 million this year and more than double that amount in 1998 if Congress approves Clinton's budget proposal." [Who funded Arizona's already- in-place hookup? NY Gov. Pataki, host of the Governor's Summit, rammed through a publicity-laden diversion last fall where all in one day, everyone "helped" to hook up all classrooms in the state, donating time and money...]

EVERYONE SHOULD BE REMINDED OF EARLY BEHAVIOR-MODIFICATION/ COMPUTER PUSHING EDUCRATS WHO SAID: (roughly remembered) "The wonderful part of the Individual Education Programs for students is that nothing can come between the computer and the child!" [Nothing can be education --OR something else!!]

Internet access for all children also makes a mockery of the uproar over TV ratings. You can have parents in living rooms watching for the 15-second flash of broad-category ratings as programs BEGIN. But, it's all for naught, IF kids can go elsewhere and access Internet garbage. With the NEA intent on "no one can tell us what we can and can't do, what students can and can't READ," it's hard to believe any "we forgot about safety precautions" was simply an oversight. If so, it's indication of overall incompetence.

In recent years, textbooks have been ignored, or even JUNKED. An Apalachin parent reported she had asked to see the history text her son's class used. Book looked brand-new and was all traditional history. The son told her it was never used in class; it was just to have something to show parents.

Many classes have used magazine articles and videos from teacher's personal collections as "curriculum." That was all hard enough for concerned parents to find out about. Imagine trying to pin down what kids CAN OR DO SEE with ALL the wonderful technology "needed for 21st Century success"!!