In many schools today, the phrase “computer-aided instruction” means making the computer teach the child. One might say the computer is being used to program the child. In my vision, the child programs the computer and, in doing so, both acquires a sense of mastery over a piece of the most modern and powerful technology and establishes an intimate contact with some of the deepest ideas from science, from mathematics, and from the art of intellectual model building.

Parents can learn that parental authority doesn’t depend on knowing everything. The more you pretend, the more risk that it’ll be traumatic and damaging to the kids and their relationship with you when they find out the truth.

Nothing bothers me more than when people criticize my criticism of school by telling me that schools are not just places to learn maths and spelling, they are places where children learn a vaguely defined thing called socialization. I know. I think schools generally do an effective and terribly damaging job of teaching children to be infantile, dependent, intellectually dishonest, passive and disrespectful to their own developmental capacities.

I tell adults about the experiences of more than a hundred teachers I’ve interviewed. They tell me that allowing the child to help them learn helped them become better teachers. That’s because they no longer had to pretend they were the experts – not only about computers but about other things.

I don’t like MTV, and I don’t like the culture that goes with it. It’s OK in very small doses, maybe. Nevertheless, it’s a social reality and has influenced how kids perceive things around them, the pace of life and the way people do things.

The first thing to note is that pornography and many abductions occur apart from the use of computers, and that most child abuse happens within the family. So I think the extra degree of danger that computers pose doesn’t justify the frenzy.

Similarly, computer literacy courses tend to produce computer people who know a lot about computers or a piece of software but they don’t help people become fluent with the machine.

Our goal in education should be to foster the ability to use the computer in everything you do, even if you don’t have a specific piece of software for the job.

Working with the computer gives rise to many opportunities to transcend asocial behavior, because it produces exciting and visually interesting things to share, whether it’s by creating video games, computer art or sharing exciting Web sites.

What the gears cannot do the computer might. The computer is the Proteus of machines. Its essence is its universality, its power to simulate.