With all the focus on the importance of technology in our schools, there is another important issue that needs to be stressed. That is the fact that our students need to be able to know how to express their thoughts orally and through writing.
The use of computers in our classrooms has become the dominant way for students to use their thinking processes and to express themselves. But a computer does not teach a student how to read or write — a teacher does. Students can easily use their computers to complete assignments with little difficulty.
But ask them to express themselves through oral and written communication, and it is a different story. That is why it is critical that our education system in America must allow significant time in every classroom in every school in our country for teachers to be able to teach reading and writing skills to their students from kindergarten through the 12th-grade.
Computers are useful as an addendum in the classroom and for some instruction, but they should and must not ever take the place of the classroom teacher.
John Amato
Fresh Meadows
