My mom and dad were not enamored of the 20th century’s greatest learning tool, as television once was hailed.

They prohibited us from watching it on school nights. On weekends, if they thought we’d had enough, they’d walk up, turn off the set and chase us out of the house. Norm and Jean had a low regard for the boob tube.

I imagine they’d also be skeptical of the idea that every kindergartener needs a computer while at school. When mom and dad were still young, people built skyscrapers, split the atom and launched the first spacecraft using mainly a slide rule.

Mom was a public school math teacher with a practical bent. When someone proposed a big change to some system that was already working, she’d ask, “Is that really necessary?”

Some parents are concerned that the school’s new technology initiative will leave their young children parked in front of computers for long stretches. Think Cameron Diaz’s abuse of filmstrips in the movie “Bad Teacher.”

School district officials last week did their best to assure parents that iPads in grades as low as kindergarten would be used selectively and occasionally, as complementary to class lessons and not as electronic babysitters.

A lot of this issue is about trusting our teachers, but some of it is a legitimate discussion of how young children best figure out the world, and figure out learning. The question is raging on the Internet, with revelations that Apple’s Steve Jobs forbade his own children from using iPads and that many Silicon Valley parents send their children to schools without computers.

At last week’s meeting on the issue, Haines teachers said computers would help them reach students who don’t respond to traditional teaching, save them time in the classroom and excite students about learning. They said computers in use at upper grades already have helped students become more creative and more confident.

We should take teachers at their word, but keep our guard up. Much of our society is mesmerized by gadgetry that is more entertaining than enriching. Computers have made many elements of life more convenient, but there’s no proof they’ve made us any more wise or capable. Mostly they make quick work of telling us things that are already known.

How computers shape the brains of young users is a matter worthy of scrutiny and research. Consider that the computer era also has coincided with epidemic levels of childhood obesity and alienation that in extreme cases has manifested itself as youth suicide and violence.

School officials last week sought to assure parents that school computers are “just tools.” They are, but they’re sophisticated tools, more akin to chainsaws, cars and guns than to hammers, bicycles and slingshots.

Until we know more, maybe the best approach for teachers using computers in lower grades is to begin with mom’s maxim: Is this really necessary?

– Tom Morphet

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