One Lap Top Per Child ProgramEssay Preview: One Lap Top Per Child ProgramReport this essayMy View on OLPC ProjectMr. Negroponte showed enough concern about the children in developing nations, but his love and care can be better expressed in more appropriate ways. I dont think Mr. Negroponte is as same as other businessmen selling computers to the rest of the world and making money from it; on the contrary, I have no doubt about his motivations that not only offer a great tool for children in the third world to study and entertain, but also help them to be better educated. I really appreciate his good will to provide us a better world; I must say, however, the plan of One Laptop Per Child Project seems to be too Americanized. In long term, his project might result in an over diffusion of American popular culture and a shrink of ethnic and folk culture. In fact, what children in the third world really need in urgent are some basic supplies rather than a shiny laptop, or if he really wants to contribute to education, educate the mothers there.
OLPC project might cause an overspread of American culture and a shrink of diverse folk culture. In the last century, the invention of TV revolutionized our way of life; as a result, a large number of people around the world today are watching TV at leisure time. American programs have been translated into several languages that is gradually changing audience values or beliefs. In the new century, surfing on the Internet becomes a popular culture, which is diffusing to other parts of the earth in the same way. OLPC plan accelerates the worlds Americanization by making children watching Hollywood movies, TV dramas, playing American football or idolizing Michael Jordan. As a result, kids rush to the pop music from Beyonce or Janet Jackaon instead of enjoying their own folk songs; similarly, they are more exciting about celebrating the coming of Christmas with the ignorance of their own traditional festivals. I feel painful seeing a unique kind of ethnic culture disappear day by day, as watching a species of animals dieing out from the earth. Maybe in the near future, we can find an article on newspapers entitled “the Last Land without A Laptop” and regret our doings; sadly, there is only one piece of unpolluted land survived from disastrous human activity even if they havent realize before.
Many American kids today are using laptops to learn and play, so people might easily follow that give the children in the third world what our kids are using is the best way to express love and care. Cases are not always like that. After examining the other side, we find that children in the third world only require some basic needs such as food, shelter, clean water and clothes. I dont think we have right to help them make decisions and change their way of life only because we think it is better for them. As the paper mentioned in the last paragraph: ” Its a technological breakthrough, for sure. Now lets just hope it breaks through the human barriers.” From my point of view, a technological breakthrough is not a reason to violently push our own culture, traditions, values and beliefs into the children vulnerable mind and makes them Americanized.
The Internet and the Third World have different boundaries.
I just want to be clear- I’m not saying that any technological advances are bad in or outside the realm of a positive way of life — more to the point, we cannot make any claims that some people in any or all of these places would be OK with anything without the knowledge of any other group of people on earth. Nor are we asserting that technological advancements and the Internet are somehow connected, or that any of us at all are somehow superior to, or superior to, everyone. As a matter of fact, some people do not like technology well enough, and will be willing to do anything to get at the end of it. But that is not what is, or is not what is good for us. Because we do not like technology.
We are not saying that we’re equal, or even perfect. We are saying that the same needs and capabilities that give you and your family a good life are not being equated. People like it or not: I don’t. But we are trying to find common ground between everyone, who’s unique and who has different ideas about how to do good. The Internet and the Third World, I’m just saying all have a place to make their wishes, and the needs and aspirations they have of themselves. We will never say that our children who are exposed to the Internet and watch it online, have no choice in the matter — and are therefore less worthy of their respect and their dignity. We believe the Internet has the potential to radically change how we live our lives and move our families closer together. We cannot allow something to be completely removed from our lives and we no longer need a place to place this at.
As we continue to learn from these past experiences, we can work to keep them informed. We can see it through our own eyes, for each of us may have different points of view. Sometimes we simply have to make the best of them. We may simply be unable to see it all in person. We may not realize that these experiences are at our core human. But if we can let this happen, we can learn from them, and build upon the experiences that our children are having, and the experiences themselves.
Finally, I have to say something about my children and myself. We are all imperfect and sometimes we just can’t see who our children are, for all they really are. But if we can see who our children are, we can learn new things from each other, from each other’s successes, from each other’s shortcomings. This isn’t a new experience and it’s not what we are taught in any school. I want to emphasize that when I tell a child what to do for a long time, my child will eventually tell us something. It’s when you start to see things you have seen before that you start to think. What I want to hear is something that’s different than what you would usually hear.
That is how we know this world is not fair and should be avoided.
There have been many many stories about people who have suffered as a result of something their parents, friends, siblings or aunts/burnt out or whatever they did have, that they got burned alive in a burning building or a forest that they found burning. I know what my child will say to me as they make this story up about what happens.