In this technological age we sometimes give computers far more credit for shaping the human condition than these machines deserve.
An information technology conference for community organizations and educators held recently in Newport, explored ways to entice and train more youngsters in high technology fields, to provide the future information technology workforce.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
A question from a community leader brought a curious response. How do you deal with youngsters at risk, she asked. The answers from a panel of experts were surprising. First some suggested you teach them like any other youngster, providing the same opportunity. But then one panelist suggested that the computers themselves might actually help these youngsters overcome the problems that make them “at risk” children.
What computers don’t do is teach socialization skills. They don’t help an “at risk” youngster regain trust in the adults he or she has to deal with.
Computers by their very nature are anti-social, promoting isolationism sometimes. University of Rhode Island president Robert Carothers, at an event last year, said some URI students were getting “room service” from the cafeteria so they wouldn’t have to leave their computers.
The way we need to deal with at-risk youngsters is to find out why they are at-risk. The stories sometimes are chilling. Many times these are youngsters who have been physically, sexually or mentally abused by adults or family members over a long period of time.
Their need is counseling, structure, and an environment in which the youngster can once again gain trust in adults, feel a sense of self worth, begin to have positive goals and positive dreams.
Here too the companies that seek a better trained workforce can get involved by supporting those organizations that are in the trenches, trying to save these children from a life of despair, hoping to create for them a world of opportunities. There is a vast amount of potential among these troubled youngsters, but it will never be reached unless we first deal with the underlying problems that are putting them “at-risk.”
There are some wonderful agencies in our community that are in the trenches, dealing with this most difficult area and meeting with some success. Sometimes the troubles are so deep that no individual — no computer — can make a difference and troubled youngsters become troubled adults.
But sometimes, there’s the success and an at-risk youngster regains faith in him or herself and others, and then is ready to meet the machines — the computers — that may help that youngster achieve his or her dreams.
