ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the initial computer literacy related programs in the district as practiced in the high school and middle school. Lakeside-Maple Glen intended that its computer literacy curricula be one that empowered users. The goal for all students is to understand computers, to control the computer and not be controlled by it. The meaning of computer literacy curricula therefore cannot be viewed in isolation from its organizational and cultural context and the long-term consequences it has for the teachers and students who participate in it. More contradictions are evident when one examines the purposes of introducing computer literacy into schools. Considering the social and economic pressures on all schools in general, and in upwardly mobile middle class schools in particular, it is not surprising that two new course additions, Computer Programming as a math department elective and Data Processing as a business department elective, were quickly approved and widely supported by the Lakeside-Maple Glen School Board, community, and students.
