Learning in a war zone - inner-city Chicago school

Christian Century, Oct 23, 1996 by Katherine A. Gilbert

President Clinton proposed having "every single library and every single classroom in America connected to the information superhighway by the year 2000." In Ross's class four children at a time are allowed to use the computers at the back of the room. When it is their turn, children fly across the classroom, almost knocking the computers over in their excitement. The computer programs provide lessons in the form of games, from stories that one can follow simultaneously in both Spanish and English, through math and spatial designs, to building with colored blocks.

I was surprised by the children's enthusiasm for math. Students consistently name math as their favorite subject. It was not until-computer time that it became obvious that their language skills lag far behind. Three-letter words were a struggle for some. Computers have the potential to enhance education, but we should not pat ourselves on the back for plugging classrooms into the information superhighway when the information on the screen is nearly unintelligible to the children using the computers.

One child told me that God is his personal hero because "he gave us the power to do things, and he made everything that we need in this earth." Will the people who have the most "power to do things" be able to give these children what they urgently need?

Katherine A. Gilbert is an editorial assistant at the Century. Names used for the schoolteachers and students in this report are not their real names.