The Computer Clubhouse: Technological Fluency in the Inner City
Mitchel Resnick · 2006
A year or so later, Mike’s mother was participating in a teachers’ workshop at The Computer Museum in downtown Boston. She mentioned to the staff that her son was artistically talented, but she was worried because he was unemployed and not using his talents. They told her about the Computer Clubhouse, a new afterschool center where inner-city youth could work on computer projects. They said the Clubhouse needed volunteers and suggested that she encourage Mike to apply. Mike was skeptical. “I had never touched a computer before,” he remembers now. “I didn’t think of them at all.” Mike's mother argued that volunteering at the Computer Clubhouse—and learning to use computers—might lead to a good job. Mike shrugged: “Whatever.”