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It Was A Dark And Stormy Night On Long Island
By Wayne Rash, InternetWeek
I sat safely buckled into the back seat as the tiny woman in front of
me piloted the Lincoln expertly along the rain-soaked expressways of
Long Island. We'd been talking about her kids and their love of reading
when she stopped in mid-sentence. She neatly avoided a crazed New York
driver in a black Chrysler, then picked up where she left off.
"I'm worried about the Internet, though, Mr. Rash," she said. She'd
been telling me about how proud she was that her 8-year-old was already
reading full-length books.
"Don't get me wrong," she continued, apparently concerned that this
editor from InternetWeek might take offense, "I'm glad they have the
knowledge to operate something so powerful, but there's so much out
there that I'm not sure they should be learning." On one hand, she was
satisfied that her kids' school had access to the Internet, but on the
other hand, she worried about the wealth of information it contained.
"Do you let your kids go to the library?" I asked. She said she did,
and then she told me about how her kids had discovered the popular
"Goosebumps" series of scary tales for kids. The conversation rambled a
bit longer, and she then told me about how she was teaching her kids to
save money they earned by doing chores, how she taught them to value
learning and how she was going to reward them for being good kids by
taking them to Disney World later this winter.
Eventually, though, she turned her thoughts again to the Internet.
"It's not a library, that's the problem," she explained. "When I take
my kids to the library, I help them choose the books they read, and
sometimes I read to them at night." She laughed. "Sometimes they read
to me," she said, the smile and the pride obvious in her voice.
"You can do the same thing with the Internet, and you don't have to
leave home," I pointed out. She was silent for a few minutes, then I
could see her shift uncomfortably in the darkened car. "I can't do
that, Mr. Rash," she said, and then turned the talk to other things,
but the discussion had taken on a subtly different nature. The driver
asked me what sorts of chores my children did, so I told her about how
they learned to get up early to feed the horses before school and how
they cared for the other animals.
We talked for a while, still on the subject of learning responsibility
through chores and tending to animals. She related a story about how
her father had served her pet rabbit for the family dinner one Sunday.
I was speechless, wondering how the discussion of reading and the
Internet had turned to this.
Finally, it came out. She wasn't sure she could handle the information
on the Internet, and she wasn't sure what would come of her if she
tried to learn. Without the ability to learn about the Internet, she
was unable to guide her children in their exploration.
This woman of very humble means had found a way to struggle to provide
what her children needed or could use. A single mom, she had filled her
young children's lives with a sense of wonder and learning beyond what
she'd ever known in her short life. This wasn't a case of poverty
keeping her kids from the Internet, but rather a case of fear. She was
pleased that they were learning how to use the power of the Internet at
school, but she was fearful of where that power could lead.
If this young woman were unique, she would make an interesting story,
but she wouldn't be the subject of this column. While her girlhood was
perhaps more extreme in some ways than most, she grew up with an
appreciation for learning--but a fear of the best means of learning yet
invented. Unfortunately, there are many more like her.
The evidence of this fear is ubiquitous. Congress doesn't keep passing
each year's new version of the Communications Decency Act for lack of
anything better to do. The members of Congress do this because of
pressure from their constituents. The president doesn't sign each
year's CDA into law just to keep salacious details about life in the
White House under wraps, but because there's a sentiment in America
that the information we all have access to should be controlled.
The reason for the pressure is parents like the young woman I met last
week, decent people who love learning and who love for their kids to
learn. The problem is that before the kids can be taught, the parents
first must learn. If there is a place where our industry have fallen
short, it is in teaching the parents of the kids we are so proud to be
helping. While we must wire schools, without which the kids can't learn
about the Internet, we must also reach into their parents' hearts and
help them to learn, too. And we're not doing that.
Wayne Rash is senior technology editor at InternetWeek. He can be
reached at wrash@mindspring.com or wrash@cmp.com.
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