the education of children is changing drastically as computers enter schools. children can talk to others thousands of miles away via the internet, like you might see in a commercial on television. but i wonder how often this happens. children can also see far away places or look at objects they might not otherwise see. but of all these things, what can't be done with a book, letter, photograph, or field trip? children are beginning to lose the tactileness of objects and people as they see life through the internet.

looking at a screen just cannot replace the discovery and excitement of a first encounter. the senses become dull as the screen pulses before the child's eye. quick fingers can be used for the piano, not for typing. people i know despise the internet and the way it encroaches upon learning. we are all prejudiced, bieng in the architecture school, but i think this makes my point even better.

hopefully, at this point you won't be calling me a child. (but who knows?) architecture is all about the materiality and form of a building. i could never experience a building on the internet like i could in person. i couln not even begin to explain how wonderful it is to walk into a building for the first time, to discover all the hidden wonder. this applies to anything, a dissected frog, a book, a building. if a child does not realize he likes to dissect things, where will our medical researchers come from? millions of books exist. we need patient researchers to help us remember what is in all of them. and we need architects to build places to keep the books. the internet takes all this away from people. it makes the best programmers the owners of the future.

the first time i remember going on a field trip was in first grade. my class went to the natural history museum. there we got to wander through the dinosaurs and check out all the flowers in the garden. Everyone's favorite was the fish with a jaw so big we could crawl thorough it. (unfortunately we weren't allowed.) right inside the lobby was a huge pendulum, the only one i've ever seen. i couldn't believe how it moved in a circle when i was really the one moving. little memories like this make me wonder in the world, not how fast my ram can catch all the files i'm downloading.

but education has to deal with more issues than this. children have access to as much information as everyone else. there was one case of two young boys being suspended for looking up pornography on the web. they were being curious, something that isn't supposed to be a crime in school. they were suspended. how are teachers supposed to keep such behavior in check without giving children the wrong impression of the internet? children are alos becoming more interested in having what they want when they want it rather than willing to work for it. they have no tangible results oftheir work either. no paper to turn in, no drawing to hang up at home, no model to keep. the whole world might not be able to see it but a paper is something of their own that they can look at and treasure. information and experience are becomming transient.