IP: panic in educators -- Computers Can Harm Young Children, U.S. Group Says

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

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