The Renaissance, the rebirth of learning had begun. Technologies of the time drove rapid change beyond the control of those who sought to resist it or control it. Knowledge that had been hidden and guarded for a thousand years was free. It was accessible to an ever increasing albeit select segment of the population. Thoughts began to diverge in spite of the herculean efforts of such reactionary programs as the Spanish Inquisition. Constant ubiquitous change must have created considerable stress within those institutions, groups, and individuals who clung desperately to the status quo.

Church reformers saw the translation of the Bible into the common languages as a better way of getting the word of God to the people. To enhance this curriculum it was necessary to establish schools that would teach the pious to read. Thus, the clerical community ran squarely upon the double edged sword of education. For while education is a most effective means of normalizing and controlling the population, it is also liberating since it provides individuals with the knowledge and, most of all, the skills that allow people to question the existing order.

Public Education as we know it is in reality a child of the Industrial Revolution. Beyond its apparent curriculum and purpose was the pervading process, the assembly of large numbers of children in somewhat factory - like surroundings where they were taught to be passive so that they might respond unquestioningly to the directions of authority in carrying out repetitive tasks for long periods of time without complaint. This institution of Public Education has exercised control over the aquisition of knowledge for close to two hundred years, telling the young what they were to learn and how they were to learn it. It fulfilled the expectations of the industrial society that had constructed it, been conditioned by it, and paid homage to it.

The technology of this institution was and is books and paper and pens and pencils. The books were carefully prescribed so that both social and religious dogmas could be passed on to the young. Education was a means of insuring social stability.

Early in the 20th Century a wise educator stood at a roadside and yelled, " Get a horse!" later that day he watched Orville and Wilbur's strange contraption struggle into the air and asked, "Just what use is that anyway?" Technology had struck once more. Indeed the twentieth century has been marked by the exponential growth of technology both in tools and weapons.

Let us assume then that technological advances really do drive change. Once we've got them, we'll find a use for them. Moreover, since technology is closely associated with power, those who haven't got it will do whatever it takes to get it.

The rapid development of communications technology during and following the Second World War provided access to information beyond the control of institutions. Public attitudes began to change. The world of work and the social order shifted as did morals and values. The monolithic view of the world presented by established nation states could stand no more.

Then John F. Kennedy decided to beat the Russians to the moon. To accomplish this task a massive use of resources took place that led to the kind of rapid technological change that is usually associated with times of war. Communication devices and global communications were revolutionized. In addition much of the electronic technology developed had to be minaturized to fit into a spacecraft.

Once the goal of landing on the moon was accomplished we were left with all those technological devices which did such wonderful things. We could not throw them away . We had to find uses for them and we did.

We discovered that this electronic technology could be employed to access, process, transmit, and store the information used in both business and industry. Vast amounts of information could now be handled at speeds we never thought possible. Tasks could now be accomplished with the aid of technology that were seemingly impossible to do manually. Moreover, electronic devices and machines controlled by them were capable of carrying out routine repetitive tasks for long periods of time far more efficiently than people. Factories began to close. The Industrial Age was on the decline.

The place we call school, however, remained a monolith; an island apart from the world in which it existed. Seemingly oblivious, It remained intent on its purpose of passing on the dogmas of a society that no longer existed. The educational reforms of the 1960's were often carried out with, in the words of Moynihan, "Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding". It was widely assumed that humanizing and liberalizing education would make it more efficient in carrying out its historic purpose. Instead these changes, frequently poorly conceived and executed, produced divergent unstable idiosyncratic youngsters. School endured this indigestive moment and then returned, it thought, to homeo statis.

Working in Community Education as a so-called "Community Educator" advocating "Community Schools" in the late 60's and 70's, I became aware of a pathology that existed between school and community. The community had begun to distrust the school and the school was concerned that the community would interfere with its operation. The world beyond the school was beginning to demand things that schools had never conceived was their responsibility. Moreover, more children began to arrive whose behaviours did not conform to the school's values or beliefs.

Thus, began "The Great Fix It Up Period" of education. Schools continued to attempt to do what they'd always done. However, in addition they began to provide longer periods of custodial care, psychological counselling, basic social training, Family Life Education, Child and Sexual Abuse Education and the list goes on and on and on. Educational movements aimed at modifying obsolesence sprang up everywhere. Efforts like "Back To The Basics" and "Effective Schools" came into vogue. These were seemingly dedicated to the notion that the place called school could be fixed up to meet the needs of present and future generations. Proponents of these notions were often typified by style rather than substance. They appeared to cling to the maxim of the consultant: "Do Unto Others. Then Split"

Pity the poor teacher whose training is often more of a philosophic or religious experience than a technical one, coming into a school and attempting to educate a group of children that is intellectually, socially and emotionally divergent. This person must try to cover the curriculum plus all the additional demands that come from without while maintaining a semblence of order. Pity the poor teacher who has been the master craftsman of the "Horse and Buggy" school whose well-honed skills are no longer valued and is ill equipped to address the constantly growing list of additional tasks that are heaped upon the educational plate.

And then came the computer.

Those in control of the world outside the school had long known the power of electronic technology. The school if it knew ignored the fact. At best such technology belonged in Business Education or in Technical Schools. Then someone came through the door carrying a personal computer, an interesting, somewhat expensive toy. You could play games on it. A wise administrator was heard to say, "Just what real use has that anyway?" Technology had struck again.

Those first microcomputers were quite crude by today's standards. They were seen essentially as a frill. Programs could be purchased that more or less assisted instruction or administration. Still, to most teachers computers were another addition to the already overloaded school day. Relief came only on those rare occasions when staff was provided to take their children to computers. Unfortunately, computers and related electronically technologies are still widely viewed as expensive additions, both in money and time, to schools. Computer is seen as a subject. In the elementary setting it is often serves as an expensive electronic typewriter.

Let us step back and take a look at the whole issue of electronic technology in schools. I believe it is here to stay. This is no frill. This is a wonderful tool. It will soon supplant the books, the paper, the pens and the pencils as the understood technology of education. Therefore, since we gave up writing on clay tablets thousands of years ago, let's employ this tool as integral part of the educational process. If we resist our educational institutions may crumble.

Through electronic technology knowledge no longer resides in the school house. The world may well be coming out of the Industrial Middle Ages where knowledge has been controlled by institutions. Information wants to be free. Through electronic technology we will be able to access manipulated and store a rich information base that can be constantly updated and changed. Furthermore, this information is random rather than linear and sequential. Thus, each individual might well construct their own discreet body of knowledge. Hence, schools must give up the notion that there is a body of knowledge to which all young people must be exposed. Since it will likely be possible for most individuals to reach into a rich and diverse information store house the world may well be rapidly moving into the "New Renaissance" where knowledge is beyond the control of institutions.

It is time to look at a new construct for the place we call school. For those educators who would argue this point I would like to strain a metaphor. Assume that school, as we know it, is a life raft. For years now it has been falling apart. By diligent effort we have managed to patch it together and keep it afloat. We are within sight of a strange and unknown land. Our dilemma is this. If we cling to the raft for immediate safety we know that we will eventually drift out to sea and drown. If we swim for shore no one really knows what lies ahead. It is this state of ambivalence that causes the stress in educators. I say it is time to swim for it.

During the Industrial Age people congregated in cities. They came together to work, to survive. We have seen these cities begin to die and become alien places for much of their poverty striken population. Industrial plants have closed and those that continue to operate do incalculable damage to the environment.

Technology may now allow us to stop the movement of people into the congested cities. It may permit us to disperse into smaller more human communities once again. Possibly, this has already begun. For example, a small farm town in North Dakota presently does much of the work of a large travel agency in Philadelphia.

Keeping in mind to avoid the nebulous affirmations of the educational stylists, let's take this vision of social change and begin to seriously reconstruct the place called school. To start with we need to conceive what individuals will need to know in order to survive and prosper now and into the 21st century. I believe they will still need to acquire competency with the skills of reading, communicating and basic mathematics. Aesthetic, artistic, and perceptual awareness must be addressed. Physical fitness and health are still on the plate. However, beyond this lies a world where people will have to be able to access, assess, manipulate and store vast amounts of information most of which will be multi-disciplinary. They will have to be able to make rational decisions in light of highly conflicting information. They will have to be problem solvers not judges and critics. They will have to learn to be independent while living in an increasingly interdependent world. They will have to learn the skills of cooperation rather than competition.

Postulate then, if you will, Community Learning Centres where Learning Guilds complete with master craftsmen, journeymen, and apprentices carry out at least part of their enterprise. Technology would be an integral part of these centres for it allows access to that rich living constantly changing data base known as the world. Books and other stored data would be archival in nature. However, electronically stored data would be far more accessible and useful.

Learning Guilds would be multi-age groups that in a real sense might extend from the elderly to the very young. Teachers might plan and direct these guilds but many skilled mentors would join from time to time, some through electronic telecommunications. The emphasis in each guild would be on competence and productivity. Hence, the enterprises of these groups would be of real use to the community and the world at large. Thus, the young learners would immediately be empowered to take part in the world rather than spending part of their lives in isolation preparing to participate.

Such guilds would be highly interdependent relying on all members to contribute. Therefore, they would need to honour and nurture the contributions of all. Thus, they might develop the independent spirit of each individual. These groups might well in part begin to supplant the broken homes of today and become a stabilizing influence in the world of tomorrow.

In essence, the community might become the school and the school might well embrace the community. I find it somewhat ironic that technology which is generally perceived as machinelike cold and alien may indeed be the vehicle that allows for the effective humanization of the place we call school.