As educators, we often heard the calls for school reform that we need "to prepare all children for the 21st century." However, are we really preparing children for the future? And are we preparing all children?

Someone once said that if Horace Mann were to return today, he would feel quite comfortable in today's schools, as he would find that little has actually changed. Schools in the past prepared children for a more certain future. Most children would prepare to take jobs on the farm or factory. An elite few would prepare to don the robes of academia. In today's rapidly changing society, few have visions of the future. In actuality, we are preparing many children for jobs and lives that don't exist today.

Every day, children enter classrooms that look very similar to the classrooms in Horace Mann's days. And for the more part, they perform tasks that are very much like those of yesteryear. Certainly in some classrooms, students are doing science investigations and math problem solving using manipulatives. But many of those tasks are teacher-directed, with "right" answers that are found by students following the directions. Very seldom do children have the opportunity to pose their own questions, design their own experiments and investigations, and find their own answers to construct their own knowledge.

Today, we are at a crossroad where educators, the business community, and government can all make a difference in how children learn. Through telecommunications technology, the walls of the classroom disappear and the borders of the neighborhood open up. Students can retrieve data and information once accessible only to university researchers. They can design their own investigations, share information, and publish results and their writing on-line. They can communicate with experts in their fields from all over the globe and discuss issues with anyone.

Technology can be a powerful social equalizer. I remember visiting a classroom in central Los Angeles where students were about to email students in a school in New England to discuss their pets. "Oh-oh," I thought, "the urban kids may not have as much to discuss as their electronic penpals from New England." But I was wrong--the L.A. kids more than held their own, as they told about their iguanas, ducks, and goats, and the New England kids told about their horses, dogs, and cats.

Their rich dialogue would not have taken place if the central Los Angeles kids did not have a computer, phone line, and modem in their classroom. More importantly, they have a teacher that is open to new ideas and willing to take risks. This teacher is on the "information superhighway," whereas most of us are still waiting on the on-ramps.

Can we afford to leave any kids behind technologically? Tom Soto, president of PS Enterprises, was quoted recently in the Los Angeles Times, saying that "The technological revolution represented by the 'information superhighway' is also a massive sociological experiment--a high-tech civil rights test--that will determine who can and cannot afford this technology, mastery of which has become a critical rite of passage to today's professional ranks."

Yet, according to a recent LAEP survey of 500 teachers, only five percent of students can access a computer at school that is connected to a phone line. The 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports that only 12-15% of all students use computers in their science studies and 30% of secondary math students use computers in their mathematics class. The report also shows that only 10% of minority children have access to a computer at home. These reports show that access to technology for all children is a critical need.

In a democratic society we cannot afford to have classrooms that have high technology and classrooms that do not. Access to the information superhighway for all our children is equal opportunity and empowerment that helps ensure a competitive workforce and informed citizenry for the future.