MINDSTORMS

Children, Computers,
and Powerful Ideas
SECOND EDITION

SEYMOUR PAPERT

BasicBooks
A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers
 MINDSTORMS

ally as well as cognitively. In the chapters that follow I shall try to

give you some idea of these possibilities, many of which are depen-
Chapter 1
dent on a computer-rich future, a future where a computer will be
a significant part of every child's life. But I want my readers to be
very clear that what is "utopian" in my vision and in this book is a
particular way of using computers,. of forging new relationships be- Computers
tween computers and people-that the computer will be there to be
used is simply a conservative premise.
and Computer
Cultures

IN MOST contemporary educational situations where children

come into contact with computers the computer is used to put chil-
dren through their paces, to provide exercises of an appropriate lev-
el of difficulty, to provide feedback, and to dispense information.
The computer programming the child. In the LOGO environment
the relationship is reversed: The child, even at preschool ages, is in
control: The child programs the computer. And in teaching the
computer how to think, children embark on an exploration about
how they themselves think. The experience can be heady: Thinking
about thinking turns the child into an epistemologist, an experience
not even shared by most adults.
This powerful image of child as epistemologist caught my imagi-
nation while I was working with Piaget. In 1964, after five years at
Piaget's Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva, I came away
impressed by his way of looking at children as the active builders of
their own intellectual structures. But to say that intellectual struc-
tures are built by the learner rather than taught by a teacher does
not mean that they are built from nothing. On the contrary: Like
other builders, children appropriate to their own use materials they
find about them, most saliently the models and metaphors suggest-
ed by the surrounding culture.
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MIND STORMS
If Computers and Computer Cultures
!

Piaget writes about the order in which the child develops differ- when a child learns to program, the process of learning is trans-
ent intellectual abilities. I give more weight than he does to the in- formed. It becomes more active and self-directed. In particular, the
fluence of the materials a particular culture provides in determin- knowledge is acquired for a recognizable personal purpose. The
ing that order. For example, our culture is very rich in materials child does something with it. The new knowledge is a source of
useful for the child's construction of certain components of numeri- power and is experienced as such from the moment it begins to
cal and logical thinking. Children learn to count; they learn that form in the child's mind.
the result of counting is independent of order and special arrange- I have spoken of mathematics being learned in a new way. But
ment; they extend this "conservation" to thinking about the proper- much more is affected than mathematics. One can get an idea of
ties of liquids as they are poured and of solids which change their the extent of what is changed by examining another of Piaget's
shape. Children develop these components of thinking precon- ideas. Piaget distinguishes between "concrete" thinking and "for-
sciously and "spontaneously," that is to say without deliberate mal" thinking. Concrete thinking is already well on its way by the
teaching. Other components of knowledge, such as the skills in- time the child enters the first grade at age 6 and is consolidated in
volved in doing permutations and combinations, develop more slow- the following several years. Formal thinking does not develop until
ly, or do not develop at all without formal schooling. Taken as a the child is almost twice as old, that is to say at age 12, give or take
whole this book is an argument that in many important cases t~ a year or two, and some researchers have even suggested that many
,9evelopmental difference can be attributed to our culture's relative people never achieve fully formal thinking. I do not fully accept
P2:'erty in materials from which the apparently "more advanced" Piaget's distinction, but I am sure that it is close enough to reality
intellectual structures can be built. This argument will be very dif- to help us make sense of the idea that the consequences for intellec-
ferent from cultural interpretations of Piaget that look for differ- tual development of one innovation could be qualitatively greater
ences between city children in Europe or the United States and tri- than the cumulative quantitative effects of a thousand others. Stat-
bal children in African jungles. When I speak here of "our" culture ed most simply, my conjecture is that the com uter can concretize
I mean something less parochial. I am not trying to contrast New (and personalize the formal. Seen in this light, it is not JUS an-
York with Chad. I am interested in the difference between precom- otfier powerful educational tool. It is unique in providing us with
puter cultures (whether in American cities or African tribes) and the means for addressing what Piaget and many others see as the
the "computer cultures" that may develop everywhere in the next obstacle which is overcome in the passage from child to adult
decades. thinking. I believe that it can allow us to shift the boundary sepa-
I have already indicated one reason for my belief that the com- rating concrete and formal. Knowledge that was accessible only
puter presence might have more fundamental effects on intellectual through formal processes can now be approached concretely. And
development than did other new technologies, including television the real magic comes from the fact that this knowledge includes
and even printing. The metaphor of computer as mathematics- those elements one needs to become a formal thinker.
speaking entity puts the learner in a qualitatively new kind of rela- This description of the role of the computer is rather abstract. I
tionship to an important domain of knowledge. Even the best of shall concretize it, anticipating discussions which occur in later
educational television is limited to offering quantitative improve- chapters of this book, by looking at the effect of working with com-
ments in the kinds of learning that existed without it. "Sesame puters on two kinds of thinking Piaget associates with the formal
Street" might offer better and more engaging explanations than a stage of intellectual develo ment: combinatorial thinkin where
child can get from some parents or nursery school teachers, but the one as to reason in terms of the set of all possible states of a sys-
child is still in the position of listening to explanations. By contrast, tem, and self-referential thinking about thinking itself.

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MINDSTORMS Computers and Computer Cultures

In a typical experiment in combinatorial thinking, children are can city and the African village can explain the difference in age at
asked to form all the possible combinations (or "families") of which children build their intuitive knowledge of quantity and of
beads of assorted colors. It really is quite remarkable that most systematicity.
children are unable to do this systematically and accurately until While still working in Geneva I had become sensitive to the way
they are in the fifth or sixth grades. Why should this be? Why does in which materials from the then very young computer cultures
this task seem to be so much more difficult than the intellectual were allowing psychologists to develop new ways to think about
feats accomplished by seven and eight year old children? Is its logi- thinking. 1 In fact, my entry into the world of computers was moti-
cal structure essentially more complex? Can it possibly require a vated largely by the idea that children could also benefit, perhaps
neurological mechanism that does not mature until the approach of even more than the psychologists, from the way in which computer
puberty? I think that a more likely explanation is provided by look- models seemed able to give concrete form to areas of knowledge
ing at the nature of the culture. The task of making the families of that had previously appeared so intangible and abstract.
beads can be looked at as constructing and executing a program, a I began to see how children who had learned to program comput-
very common sort of program, in which two loops are nested: Fix a ers could use very concrete computer models to think about think-
first color and run through all the possible second colors, then re- ing and to learn about learning and in doing so, enhance their pow-
peat until all possible first colors have been run through. For some- ers as psychologists and as epistemologists. For example, many
one who is thoroughly used to computers and programming there is children are held back in their learning because they have a model
nothing "formal" or abstract about this task. For a child in a com- of learning in which you have either "got it" or "got it wrong." But
puter culture it would be as concrete as matching up knives and when you learn to program a computer you almost never get it
forks at the dinner table. Even the common "bug" of including right the first time. Learning to be a master programmer is learn-
some families twice (for example, red-blue and blue-red) would be ing to become highly skilled at isolating and correcting "bugs," the
well-known. Our culture is rich in pairs, couples, and one-to-one parts that keep the program from working. The question to ask
correspondences of all sorts, and it is rich in language for talking about the program is no w . is ri ht or wron but if it is
about such things. This richness provides both the incentive and a fixa e. this way of lookin at intellectual products were general-
supply of models and tools for children to build ways to think about ized to ow the larger culture thinks about know edge and its ac-
such issues as whether three large pieces of candy are more or less guisition, we all might be less intimidated by our fears of "being
than four much smaller pieces. For such problems our children ac- wrong." This potential influence of the computer on changing our
qu.ire an excel.lent intuitive sense of quantity. But gur culture is ret notion of a black and white version of our successes and failures is
a~r m models of systematic procedures. Until recent y
an example of using the computer as an "object-to-think-with." It
tl\ere was not even a name m popular language for programming, is obviously not necessary to work with computers in order to ac-
let alone for the ideas needed to do so successfully. There is no quire good strategies for learning. Surely "debugging" strategies
word for "nested loops" and no word for the double-counting bug. were developed by successful learners long before computers exist-
Indeed, there are no words for the powerful ideas computerists re- ed. But thinking about learning by analogy with developing a pro-
fer to as "bug" and "debugging." gram is a powerful and accessible way to get started on becoming
Without the incentive or the materials to build powerful, con- more articulate about one's debugging strategies and more deliber-
crete ways to think about problems involving systematicity, chil- ate about improving them.
dren are forced to approach such problems in a groping, abstract My discussion of a computer culture and its impact on thinking
fashion. Thus cultural factors that are common to both the Ameri- presupposes a massive penetration of powerful computers into peo-

22 23
 I
MINDSTORMS
'l
\ Computers and Computer Cultures
pie's lives. That this will happen there can be no doubt. The calcu-
computers will fall to a level where they will enter everyday li:e in
lator, the electronic game, and the digital watch were brought to us
vast numbers. Some will be there as computers proper, that IS to
by a technical revolution that rapidly lowered prices for electronics
say, programmable machines. Others might appear as games of
in a period when all others were rising with inflation. That same
ever-increasing complexity and in automated supermarkets where
technological revolution, brought about by the integrated circuit, is
the shelves, maybe even the cans, will talk. One really can afford to
now bringing us the personal computer. Large computers used to
let one's imagination run wild. There is no doubt that the material
cost millions of dollars because they were assembled out of millions
surface of life will become very different for everyone, perhaps
of physically distinct parts. In the new technology a complex circuit
most of all for children. But there has been significant difference of
is not assembled but made as a whole, solid entity-hence the term
opinion about the effects this computer presence ':ill. produ~e. I
"integrated circuit." The effect of integrated circuit technology on
would distinguish my thinking from two trends of thmkmg wh1ch I
cost can be understood by comparing it to printing. The main ex-
refer to here as the "skeptical" and the "critical."
penditure in making a book occurs long before the press begins to
Skeptics do not expect the computer presence to make much dif-
roll. It goes into writing, editing, and typesetting. Other costs occur
ference in how people learn and think. I have formulated a number
after the printing: binding, distributing, and marketing. The actual
of possible explanations for why they think as they do. In some
cost per copy for printing itself is negligible. And the same is true
cases I think the skeptics might conceive of education and the ef-
for a powerful as for a trivial book. So, too, most of the cost of an
fect of computers on it too narrowly. Instead of considering general
integrated circuit goes into a preparatory process; the actual cost of
cultural effects, they focus attention on the use of the computer as
making an individual circuit becomes negligible, provided enough
a device for programmed instruction. Skeptics then conclude that
are sold to spread the costs of development. The consequences of
while the computer might produce some improvements in school
this technology for the cost of computation are dramatic. Comput-
learning, it is not likely to lead to fundamental change. In a se~se,
ers that would have cost hundreds of thousands in the 1960s and
too I think the skeptical view derives from a failure to appreciate
tens of thousands in the early 1970s can now be made for less than
a dollar. The only limiting factor is whether the particular circuit
jus~ how much Piagetian learning takes place as a child grows up.
If a person conceives of children's intellectual development (or, for
can fit onto what corresponds to a "page"-that is to say the "sili-
that matter, moral or social development) as deriving chi~fiy from
con chips" on which the circuits are etched.
deliberate teaching, then such a person would be likely to under-
But each year in a regular and predictable fashion the art of
estimate the potential effect that a massive presence of computers
etching circuits on silicon chips is becoming more refined. More
and other interactive objects might have on children.
and more complex circuitry can be squeezed onto a chip, and the
The critics, 2 on the other hand, do think that the computer pres-
computer power that can be produced for less than a dollar in-
ence will make a difference and are apprehensive. For example,
creases. I predict that long before the end of the century, people
they fear that more communication via co~puters might _lead to
will buy children toys with as much computer power as the great
less human association and result in soc1al fragmentatiOn. As
IBM computers currently selling for millions of dollars. And as for
knowing how to use ~ computer becomes increasingly necessary to
computers to be used as such, the main cost of these machines will
effective social and economic participation, the position of the un-
be the peripheral devices, such as the keyboard. Even if these do
derprivileged could worsen, and the computer could exacerbate e~­
not fall in price, it is likely that a supercomputer will be equivalent
isting class distinctions. As to the political effect computers will
in price to a typewriter and a television set.
have, the critics' concerns resonate with Orwellian images of a
There really is no disagreement among experts that the cost of
1984 where home computers will form part of a complex system of
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25
 MINDSTORMS Computers and Computer Cultures

surv.eillance and thought control. Critics also draw attention to po- horrified at the thought of a child hypnotically held by a futuristic,
tential mental health hazards of computer penetration. Some of computerized super-pinball machine. In the LOGO work we have
these hazards are magnified forms of problems already worrying invented versions of such machines in which powerful ideas from
many observers of contemporary life; others are problems of an es- physics or mathematics or linguistics are embedded in a way that
sentially new kind. A typical example of the former kind is that our permits the player to learn them in a natural fashion, analogous to
grave ignorance of the psychological impact of television becomes how a child learns to speak. The computer's "holding power," so
even more serious when we contemplate an epoch of super TV. The feared by critics, becomes a useful educational tool. Or take an-
holding power and the psychological impact of the television show other, more profound example. The critic is afraid that children
could be increased by the computer in at least two ways. The con- will adopt the computer as model and eventually come to "think
tent might be varied to suit the tastes of each individual viewer mechanically" themselves. Following the opposite tack, !J.tave in-
and the show might become interactive, drawing the "viewer" int~ vented wa s to take educational advantage of the opportunities to
the action. Such things belong to the future, but people who are master the art of deliberately thinking like a computer, accor I g,
worried about the impact of the computer on people already cite for exam le to the stereot e of a computer program that proceeds
case~ of stude?ts spending sleepless nights riveted to the computer i~ a step-by-step. literal, mechanical fas 1on. There are situations
termmal, commg to neglect both studies and social contact. Some where this style of thinking is appropriate and useful. Some chil-
parents have been reminded of these stories when they observe a dren's difficulties in learning formal subjects such as grammar or
special quality of fascination in their own children's reaction to mathematics derive from their inability to see the point of such a
playing with the still rudimentary electronic games. style.
I~ the category of problems that are new rather than aggravated A second educational advantage. is indirect but ultimately more
vers10ns of old ones, critics have pointed to the influence of the al- important. By deliberately learning to imitate mechanical thinking,
le~edly mechanized thought processes of computers on how people the learner becomes able. to articulate what mechanical thinking is
thmk. Marshall McCluhan's dictum that "the medium is themes- and what it is not. The exercise can lead to greater confidence
sage" .might apply here: If the medium is an interactive system that about the ability to choose a co mti m.
takes m words and speaks back like a person, it is easy to get the Ana ys1s o "mechanical thinking" and how it is different from oth-
m~ssage that machines are like people and that people are like ma- er kinds and practice with problem analysis can result in a new de-
chmes. What this might do to the development of values and self- gree of intellectual sophistication. By providing a very concrete,
image in growing children is hard to assess. But it is not hard to see down-to-earth model of a particular style of thinking, work with
reasons for worry. the computer can make it easier to understand that there is such a
Despi~e these concerns I am essentially optimistic-some might thing as a "style of thinking." And giving children the opportunity
sa~ utopian-about the effect of computers on society. I do not dis- to choose one style or another provides an opportunity to develop
miss the arguments of the critics. On the contrary, I too see the the skill necessary to choose between styles. Thus instead of induc-
computer presence as a potent influence on the human mind. I am ing mechanical thinking, contact with computers could turn out to
very much aware ofthe holding power of an interactive computer be the best conceivable antidote to it. And for me what is most im-
and of how taking the computer as a model can influence the way portant in this is that through these experiences these children
we think about ourselves. In fact the work on LOGO to which I would be serving their apprenticeships as epistemologists, that is to
ha:e devoted much of the past ten years consists precisely of devel- say learning to think articulately about thinking.
opmg such forces in positive directions. For example, the critic is The intellectual environments offered to children by today's cui-
26 27
 MINDSTORMS
Computers and Computer Cultures
tures are poor in opportunities to bring their thinking about think-
most cases the computer is being used either as a versatile video
ing into the open, to learn to talk about it and to test their ideas by
game or as a "teaching machine" prog~ammed to put childr~n
externalizing them. Access to computers can dramatically change
through their paces in arithmetic or spelhng. And even when chtl-
this situation. Even the simplest Turtle work can open new oppor-
dren are taught by a parent, a peer, or a professional teacher to
tunities for sharpening one's thinking about thinking: Program-
write simple programs in a language like BASIC, this activity is
ming the Turtle starts by making one reflect on how one does one-
not accompanied at all by the kind of epistemological reflection
self what one would like the Turtle to do. Thus teaching the Turtle
that we see in the LOGO environments. So I ·share a skepticism
to act or to "think" can lead one to reflect on one's own acticws and
with the critics about what is being done with computation now.
.!_hinking. And as children move on, they program the computer to
But I am interested in stimulating a major change in how things
make more complex decisions and find themselves engaged in re-
flecting on more complex aspects of their own thinking. can be. The bottom line for such changes is political. What is hap-

l In short, while the critic and I share the belief that working with pening now is an empirical question: What ~~n happe~ is a techni-
cal question. But what will happen IS a poht1cal questiOn, depend-
computers can have a powerful influence on how people think, I
have turned my attention to exploring how this influence could be ing on social choices. .
turned in positive directions. The central open questions about the effect of computers on chil-
dren in the 1980s are these: Which people will be attracted to the
I see two kinds of counterarguments to my arguments against
the critics. The first kind challenges my belief that it is a good world of computers, what talents will they bring, and what tastes
thing for children to be epistemologists. Many people will argue and ideologies will they impose on the growing computer culture? I
have described children in LOGO environments engaged in self-
that overly analytic, verbalized thinking is counterproductive even
referential discussions about their own thinking. This could happen
if it is deliberately chosen. The second kind of objection challenges
because the LOGO language and the Turtle were designed by peo-
my suggestion that computers are likely to lead to more reflective
self-conscious thinking. Many people will argue that work with ple who enjoy such discussion and worked hard to design a medium
computers usually has the opposite effect. These two kinds of ob- that would encourage it. Other designers of computer systems have
jections call for different kinds of analysis and cannot be discussed different tastes and different ideas about what kinds of activities
simultaneously. The first kind raises technical questions about the are suitable for children. Which design will prevail, and in what
psychology of learning which will be discussed in chapters 4 and 6. sub-culture, will not be decided by a simple bureaucratic decision
The second kind of objection is most directly answered by saying made, for example, in a government Department of Education or
that there is absolutely no inevitability that computers will have the by a committee of experts. Trends in comp~ter st~le will emerge
from a complex web of decisions by FoundatiOns w1th resources to
effects I hope to see. Not all computer systems do. Most in use to-
day do not. In LOGO environments I have seen children engaged support one or another design, by corporati?ns who may se~ a mar-
in animated conversations about their own personal knowledge as ket, by schools, by individuals who will decide to ~ake their ~areer
they try to capture it in a program to make a Turtle carry out an in the new field of activity, and by children who will have their own
action that they themselv~s know very well how to do. But of say in what they pick up and what they make of it. People often ask
course the physical presence of a computer is not enough to insure whether in the future children will program computers or become
that such conversations will come about. Far from it. In thousands absorbed in pre-programmed activities. The answer must be that
of schools and in tens of thousands of private homes children are some children will do the one, some the other, some both and some
right now living through very different computer experiences. In neither. But which children, and most importantly, which social
classes of children, will fall into each category will be influenced by
28
29
 MINDSTORMS Computers and Computer Cultures

the kind of computer activities and the kind of environments cre- strategies. It reflects a fundamental difference in educational phi-
ated around them. losophies. More to the point, it reflects a difference in views on the
As an example, we consider an activity which may not occur to nature of childhood. I believe that the computer as writing instru-
most people when they think of computers and children: the use of ment offers children an opportunity to become more like adults, in-
a computer as a writing instrument. For me, writing means making deed like advanced professionals, in their relationship to their intel-
~rough draft and refining it over a considerable period of time. My lectual products and to themselves. In doing so, it comes into head-
Image of myself as a writer includes the expectation of an "unac- on collision with the many aspects of school whose effect, if not
ceptable" first draft that will develop with successive editing into whose intention, is to "infantilize" the child.
presentab.le form. But I would not be able to afford this image if I Word processors can make a child's experience of writing more
were a third grader. The physical act of writing would be slow and like that of a real writer. But this can be undermined if the adults
labo~ious. I w~uld have no secretary. For most children rewriting a surrounding that child fail to appreciate what it is like to be a writ-
text IS so labonous that the first draft is the final copy, and the skill er. For example, it is only too easy to imagine adults, including
of rereading with a critical eye is never acquired. This changes dra- teachers, expressing the view that editing and re-editing a text is a
~atica~ly when children have access to computers capable of ma- waste of time ("Why don't you get on to something new?" or "You
mp~l.atmg text. The ~rst draft is fomposed at the keyboard. Cor- aren't making it any better, why don't you fix your spelling?").
rectiOns are mad~ easily. The current copy is always neat and tidy. As with writing, so with music-making, games of skill, complex
I hav: seen a child move from total rejection of writing to an in- graphics, whatever: The computer is not a culture unto itself but it
te.ns: mvolvement (accompanied by rapid improvement of quality) can serve to advance very different cultural and philosophical out-
w1thm a few weeks of beginning to write with a computer. Even looks. For example, one could think of the Turtle as a device to
more dramatic changes are seen when the child has physical handi- teach elements of the traditional curriculum, such as notions of an-
caps that make writing by hand more than usually difficult or even gle, shape, and coordinate systems. And in fact, most teachers who
impossible. consult me about its use are, quite understandably, trying to use it
This use of computers is rapidly becoming adopted wherever in this way. Their questions are about classroom organization,
adults write for a living. Most newspapers now provide their staff scheduling problems, pedagogical issues raised by the Turtle's in-
with "word processing" computer systems. Many writers who work troduction, and especially, about how it relates conceptually to the
at home are acquiring their own computers, and the computer ter- rest of the curriculum. Of course the Turtle can help in the teach-
minal is steadily displacing the typewriter as the secretary's basic ing of traditional curriculum, but I have thought of it as a vehicle
tool. ~he ima~e of children using the computer as a writing instru- for Piagetian learning, which to me is learning without curriculum.
~ent Is a particularly good example of my general thesis that what There are those who think about creating a "Piagetian curricu-
IS good for professionals is good for children. But this image of how lum" or "Piagetian teaching methods." But to my mind these
the co~puter might contribute to children's mastery of language is phrases and the activities they represent are contradictions in
dramatically opposed to the one that is taking root in most elemen- terms. I see Piaget as the theorist of learning without curriculum
tary schools. There the computer is seen as a teaching instrument. and the theorist of the kind of learning that happens without delib-
It gives children practice in distinguishing between verbs and erate teaching. To turn him into the theorist of a new curriculum is
nouns, in spelling, and in answering multiple-choice questions to stand him on his head.
about the meaning of pieces of text. As I see it, this difference is But " 'thout curriculum" does not mean spontaneous,
not a matter of a small and technical choice between two teaching free-form classrooms or simply eavmg t e ch1 alone." It me ns
30 31
 MINDSTORMS Computers and Computer Cultures

supporting children as they build their own intellectual structures The top row of alphabetic keys of the standard typewriter reads
with materials drawn from the surrounding culture. In this model, QWERTY. For me this symbolizes the way in which technology
educational intervention means changing the culture, planting new can all too often serve not as a force for progress but for keeping
constructiVe elements m It and eliminating noxious ones. This is a things stuck. The QWERTY arrangement has no rational explana-
more am6itious undertaking than introducin·g ·a curriculum tion, only a historical one. It was introduced in response to a prob-
change, but one which is feasible under conditions now emerging. lem in the early days of the typewriter: The keys used to jam. The
Suppose that thirty years ago an educator had decided that the idea was to minimize the collision problem by separating those keys
way to solve the problem of mathematics education was to arrange that followed one another frequently. Just a few years later, gener-
for a significant fraction of the population to become fluent in (and al improvements in the technology removed the jamming problem,
enthusiastic about) a new mathematical language. The idea might but QWERTY stuck. Once adopted, it resulted in many millions of
have been good in principle, but in practice it would have been ab- typewriters and a method (indeed a full-blown curriculum) for
surd. No one had the power to implement it. Now things are differ- learning typing. The social cost of change (for example, putting the
ent. Many millions of people are learning programming languages most used keys together on the keyboard) mounted with the vested
for reasons that have nothing to do with the education of children. interest created by the fact that so many fingers now knew how to
Therefore, it becomes a practical proposition to influence the form follow the QWERTY keyboard. QWERTY has stayed on despite
of the languages they learn and the likelihood that their children the existence of other, more "rational" systems. On the other hand,
will pick up these languages. if you talk to people about the QWERTY arrangement they will
The educator must be an anthropologist. The educator as an- justify it by "objective" criteria. They will tell you that it "opti-
thropologist must work to understand which cultural materials are mizes this" or it "minimizes that." Although these justifications
relevant to intellectual development. Then, he or she needs to un- have no rational foundation, they illustrate a process, a social pro-
derstand which trends are taking place in the culture. Meaningful cess, of myth construction that allows us to build a justification for
intervention must take the form of working with these trends. In primitivity into any system. And I think that we are well on the
my role of educator as anthropologist I see new needs being gener- road to doing exactly the same thing with the computer. We are in
ated by the penetration of the computer into personal lives. People the process of digging ourselves into an anachronism by preserving
who have computers at home or who use them at work will want to practices that have no rational basis beyond their historical roots in
be able to talk about them to their children. They will want to be an earlier period of technological and theoretical development.
able to teach their children to use the machines. Thus there could The use of computers for drill and practice is only one example
be a cultural demand for something like Turtle graphics in a way of the QWERTY phenomenon in the computer domain. Another
there never was, and perhaps never could be, a cultural demand for example occurs even when attempts are made to allow students to
the New Math. learn to program the computer. As we shall see in later chapters,
Throughout the course of this chapter I have been talking about learning to program a computer involves learning a "programming
the ways in which choices made by educators, foundations, govern- language." There are many such languages-for example, FOR-
ments, and private individuals can affect the potentially revolution- TRAN, PASCAL, BASIC, SMALLTALK, and LISP, and the
ary changes in how children learn. But making good choices is not lesser known language LOGO, which our group has used in most of
always easy, in part because past choices can often haunt us. There our experiments with computers and children. A powerful
is a tendency for the first usable, but still primitive, product of a QWERTY phenomenon is to be expected when we choose the lan-
new technology to dig itself in. I have called this phenomenon the guage in which children are to learn to program computers. I shall
QWERTY phenomenon.

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 MINDSTORMS Computers and Computer Cultures

argue-in detail that the issue is consequential. A programming lan- are invented to justify features of BASIC that were originally in-
guage is like a natural, human language in that it favors certain cluded because the primitive technology demanded them or be-
metaphors, images, and ways of thinking. The language used cause alternatives were not well enough known at the time the lan-
strongly colors the computer culture. It would seem to follow that guage was designed.
educators interested in using computers and sensitive to cultural in- An example of BASIC ideology is the argument that BASIC is
fluences would pay particular attention to the choice of language. easy to learn because it has a very small vocabulary. The surface
But nothing of the sort has happened. On the contrary, educators, validity of the argument is immediately called into question if we
too timid in technological matters or too ignorant to attempt to in- apply it to the context of how children learn natural languages.
fluence the languages offered by computer manufacturers, have ac- Imagine a suggestion that we invent a special language to help chil-
cepted certain programming languages in much the same way as dren learn to speak. This language would have a small vocabulary
they accepted the QWERTY keyboard. An informative example is of just fifty words, but fifty words so well chosen that all ideas
the way in which the programming language BASIC 3 has estab- could be expressed using them. Would this language be easier to
lished itself as the obvious language to use in teaching American learn? Perhaps the vocabulary might be easy to learn, but the use
children how to program computers. The relevant technical infor- of the vocabulary to express what one wanted to say would be so
mation is this: A very small computer can be made to understand contorted that only the most motivated and brilliant children would
BASIC, while other languages demand more from the computer. learn to say more than "hi." This is close to the situation with BA-
Thus, in the early days when computer power was extremely ex- SIC. Its small vocabulary can be learned quickly enough. But using
pensive, there was a genuine technical reason for the use of BA- it is a different matter. Programs in BASIC acquire so labyrinthine
SIC, particularly in schools where budgets were always tight. To- a structure that in fact only the most motivated and brilliant
day, and in fact for several years now, the cost of computer ("mathematical") children do learn to use it for more than trivial
memory has fallen to the point where any remaining economic ad- ends.
vantages of using BASIC are insignificant. Yet in most high One might ask why the teachers do not notice the difficulty chil-
schools, the language remains almost synonymous with program- dren have in learning BASIC. The answer is simple: Most teachers
ming, despite the existence of other computer languages that are do not expect high performance from most students, especially in a
demonstrably easier to learn and are richer in the intellectual bene- domain of work that appears to be as "mathematical" and "for-
fits that can come from learning them. The situation is paradox- mal" as programming. Thus the culture's general perception of
ical. The computer revolution has scarcely begun, but is already mathematics as inaccessible bolsters the maintenance of BASIC,
breeding its own conservatism. Looking more closely at BASIC which in turn confirms these perceptions. Moreover, the teachers
provides a window on how a conservative social system appropri- are not the only people whose assumptions and prejudices feed into
ates and tries to neutralize a potentially revolutionary instrument. the circuit that perpetuates BASIC. There are also the computer-
BASIC is to computation what QWERTY is to typing. Many ists, the people in the computer world who make decisions about
teachers have learned BASIC, many books have been written about what languages their computers will speak. These people, generally
it, many computers have been built in such a way that BASIC is engineers, find BASIC quite easy to learn, partly because they are
"hardwired" into them. In the case of the typewriter, we noted how accustomed to learning such very technical systems and partly be-
people invent "rationalizations" to justify the status quo. In the cause BASIC's sort of simplicity appeals to their system of values.
case of BASIC, the phenomenon has gone much further, to the Thus, a particular subculture, one dominated by computer engi-
point where it resembles ideology formation. Complex arguments neers, is influencing the world of education to favor those school
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MINDSTORMS
change is possible, and the possibility for that change is directly
students who are most like that subculture. The process is tacit, un- tied to the impact of the computer. Today what is offered in the
intentional: It has never been publicly articulated, let alone evalu- education "market" is largely determined by what is acceptable to
ated. In all of these ways, the social embedding of BASIC has far a sluggish and conservative system. But this is where the computer
more serious consequences than the "digging in" of QWERTY. presence is in the process of creating an environment for change.
There are many other ways in which the attributes of the subcul- Consider the conditions under which a new educational idea can be
tures involved with computers are being projected onto the world of put into practice today and in the near future. Let us suppose t~at
education. For example, the idea of the computer as an instrument today I have an idea about how children could learn mathematics
for drill and practice that appeals to teachers because it resembles more effectively and more humanely. And let us suppose that I
traditional teaching methods also appeals to the engineers who de- have been able to persuade a million people that the idea is a good
sign computer systems: Drill and practice applications are predict- one. For many products such a potential market would guarantee
able, simple to describe, efficient in use of the machine's resources. success. Yet in the world of education today this would have little
So the best engineering talent goes into the development of com- clout: A million people across the nation would still mean a minor-
puter systems that are biased to favor this kind of application. The ity in every town's school system, so there might be no effective
bias operates subtly. The machine designers do not actually decide channel for the million voices to be expressed. Thus, not only do
what will be done in the classrooms. That is done by teachers and good educational ideas sit on the shelves, but the process of inven-
occasionally even by carefully controlled comparative research ex- tion is itself stymied. This inhibition of invention in turn influences
periments. But there is an irony in these controlled experiments. the selection of people who get involved in education. Very f~w
They are very good at telling whether the small effects seen in best with the imagination, creativity, and drive to make great new In-
scores are real or due to chance. But they have no way to measure ventions enter the field. Most of those who do are soon driven out
the undoubtedly real (and probably more massive) effects of the bi- in frustration. Conservatism in the world of education has become
ases built into the machines. a self-perpetuating social phenomenon. .
We have already noted that the conservative bias being built into Fortunately, there is a weak link in the vicious circle. Increasmg-
the use of computers in education has also been built into other ly, the computers of the very near future will be the p~iv~t~ proper-
new technologies. The first use of the new technology is quite natu- ty of individuals, and this will gradually_ return to t~e md~vtdual the
rally to do in a slightly different way what had been done before power to determine patterns of educatiOn. ~ucatlo~ will b~come
without it. It took years before designers of automobiles accepted more of a private act,-and people with good tdeas, different Ideas,
the idea that they were cars, not "horseless carriages," and the pre- exciting ideas will no longer be faced with a dilemma where they
cursors of modern motion pictures were plays acted as if before a either have to "sell" their ideas to a conservative bureaucracy or
live audience but actually in front of a camera. A whole generation shelve them. They will be able to offer them in an open market-
was needed for the new art of motion pictures to emerge as some- place directly to consumers. There will be new opportunities. for
thing quite different from a linear mix of theater plus photography. imagination and originality. There might be a renaissance of thmk-
Most of what has been done up to now under the name of "educa- ing about education.
tional technology" or "computers in education" is still at the stage
of the linear mix of old instructional methods with new technol-
ogies. The topics I shall be discussing are some of the first probings
toward a more organic interaction of fundamental educational
principles and new methods for translating them into reality.
We are at a point in the history of education when radical
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