People who are old enough to remember what life was like...
   (before computers) are uneasy about the rising computer
   generation,but most realize that knowledge of computers will 
   be vital to the adult success of today's youngsters.Thus we
   find ourselves in an exciting technological age-not quite sure 
   how to meet it but knowing that it must be met... But,chil-
   dren are eager to use the computer systems-they know that 
   they-and computers-are the future.1 (Mandell,Hopper, p.219)

                                       
   Whether the increasing use of computers in education is met 
with ambivalence or enthusiasm,it is not, as Mandell and Hopper
point out, a new phenomenon.  What it is is part of a long ser-
ies of movements in the history of education since the late 19th
century, designed to provide students with specific skills to 
use succesfully in their adult lives.
David Nasaw, in  Schooled to Order gives an account of these 
efforts, beginning with the 19t century high school:

     A high school eucation would...give(students) a better
     chance to land a "respectable" job. Younmg women might
     find work as secretaries,...telephone operators. For
     male high school graduates, thew opportunities for 
     employment in...whit-collar job openings...offered 
     better wages and greater possibilities for advance-
     ment. 2

    In the post World War Two era, a college education surpassed
high school eucation as the most coveted step to greater
achievement in the white-collar,corporate professional world.
But, college was also an important aspect of national economic
well-being, as Nasaw explains:

     From the late 1940s through the 1960s, higher education
     planners at every level...would argue for the expansion
     of access to higher education...because that was what the 
     economy needed.  Unemploymewnt was rising and woulld con-
     tinue to rise as farm employment decreased,automation in-
     creased and millions of women entered the labor force.
     Prolonging schoolingthrough the early twenties might not
     solve the problem,(but)it would certainly make it more 
     manageable. 3

     Enrollment, especially at the college level, continued to
increase dramatically during the 1960s, and in the wake of the
Civil Rights Movement, relevance became the dominant theme for 
students, and reqyuirment for college courses.  The 1970 was the 
decade of "equal opportunity" and "affirmative action" in edu-
cation, but was also a periuod during which enrollments began to
decline.  
     Now in the 1980s,another trend is emerging- the widespread
call for a rededication to basic skills, particularly at the elem
entary and secondary level. Computers have become a central compo
nent of this all-consuming effort. How successful they have been
or can be in this regard is the subject of the remaining
discussion.
     In order to understand the extent to which computers may aid
or hinder learning, it must first be understood how people learn.
Professor David Elkind, in Children and Adolescets, has discussed
five misconceptions about how children learn and has attempted to
correct them in his book.  The first misconception is that
children think much like adults do, and have similar feelings as
well. Elkind gives an example:

     ...Parents and teachers are equally prone to regard children
        as being like us in their thinking.  When... a child uses
        a "dirty word" he has picked up from companioins, parents
        often assume he understands the word in the adult sense
        and punish him accordingly.  In fact...children use such
        not because they understand them (but) because of the
        reaction they produce in adults. Once they recognize that
        reaction is not amusement, they (will) be more(careful)
        in the future. 4

        The second misconception is that children learn best when
sitting still and listening passively.  Again, adults may derive
much from listening to a lecture or reading a book. But, children
cannot learn in this way . They must learn by doing-through
activity. The third misconception is that children can learn well
according to rules imposed on them by adults. Elkind argues to
the contrary, that since children cannot internalize random
thought, they also cannot intwernalize rules, which apply to very 
specific circumstances:

       The young child's inability to learn externally imposed
       rules has special implications for(their) educational pro
       grams... His general inability to learn general vebal 
       rules supports this.. and argues against formal education
       for this age group. Formal education whether(it be)
       read