Just when I feel comfortable with all the technology, I read Lowell Monke's article, "The Overdominance of Computers" in Educational Leadership (Dec. 2005). Monke says:

Schools need to prepare young people for a high-tech society. Does it automatically follow that children of all ages should use high-tech tools? Most people assume that it does, and that's the end of the argument. But we don't prepare children for an automobile-dependent society by finding ways for 10-year-olds to drive cars, or prepare people to use alcohol responsibly by teaching them how to drink when they are 6. My point is that preparation does not necessarily warrant early participation. Indeed, preparing young people quite often involves strengthening their inner resources—like self-discipline, moral judgment, and empathy—before giving them the opportunity to participate.

I agree with Monke that students need the ethics piece in their education especially now when we have students on the web. He comments that he realizes that his high schools students could cause a lot of pain without seeing the tears that it would cause. Speaking with another teacher today at school, I asked how are we going to teach ethics to students. The teacher said we were not because it was not in the Standards of Learning or should be the parents' responsibility.

To quote Monke again:

Anyone who has spent time in schools knows that what is keeping today's youth from succeeding academically has nothing to do with a lack of technical skills or access to computers. Rather, it is the lack of qualities like hope, compassion, trust, respect, a sense of belonging, moral judgment, stability, community support, parental care, and teacher competence and enthusiasm that keeps so many students imprisoned in ignorance.