"Which do you like more, TeacherMate or Nintendo?"

From time to time, a reporter, prospective funder, or administrator will come to one of our classrooms for a site visit. Most often, the first questions will be addressed to the teacher, but, after awhile, the interviewer will turn to the students. Invariably, the first question to the students is "what do you like about TeacherMate?" Expecting the answer to be "it's fun!" the interviewer is always surprised when the response is either "it helps me learn to read" or "it helps me with math."

Suspicious that perhaps the activities are not as fun as they first appear, the interviewer will then ask: "which do you like more, TeacherMate or Nintendo?" Nine times out of ten, the student chooses TeacherMate.

Disbelief on the part of the interviewer ensues.

Trust these children. Playing at home, they prefer Nintendo. But they know when it's time for pure fun and when it's time for fun to be subservient to learning. They know how little they learn with workbooks or by sitting in the back of a large class, when they are bored and acting out.

Our goal as educators is to tap into a child's natural desire to learn; to stoke it, and make it habitual before that desire is snuffed out by the hardships of growing up, hardships which are accentuated in low income communities. Technology can serve that goal, if the program designers keep that goal in the top of their minds.