A century ago, British playwright Oscar Wilde observed that there are only two tragedies in this life: The first is not getting what one wants; the second is getting it. Today, observers of the Internet gold rush in our schools may wonder which of these tragedies we should fear most.

In its 1999 report, "Internet Access in Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-98," the National Center for Education Statistics found that Internet access in K-12 public schools had increased from 35 percent in 1994 to 65 percent in 1996 and to 89 percent in 1998. Apparently, someone is getting what he or she wanted. However, a few months after the NCES study, Market Data Retrieval, an education market research company, published a survey of nearly 1,500 primary and secondary school educators. The company confirmed the dramatic increase in Internet connectivity, but also revealed that a majority of teachers felt unprepared to integrate technology into their curriculum and instruction.

This past December, a report from the Web-Based Education Commission corroborated this neglect of professional development opportunities for the people charged with the complex task of integrating technology into our schools. Among its seven primary points for a national e-learning agenda, the commission emphasized the need for "continuous and relevant training and support for educators and administrators at all levels."

While that's commendable, a closer examination of the report indicates a troubling, deterministic tone. On the day he announced the report's conclusions, the commission's chairman, Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), spoke in terms that ought to make a democrat blush: "We must immediately put to rest the notion that full development of Web-based technology for education is a choice." (The text of the report, "The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice," can be found at www.webcommission.org/report.)

Should one take more offense at the hubris of the Commission--which is made up of pro-technology legislators, business people and educators--or of the way it prescribes educational choices? It's ironic that such a report should arrive when the national economy is reeling from the "irrational exuberance" that led many investors to believe they had "no choice" but to purchase high-tech stocks. Apparently, we haven't learned our lesson from economics; we must now make a similar mistake in education.

In essence, the Web-Based Education Commission advocates risking our educational stability by making still greater investments in technology; it embraces the premise that Internet access will improve our schools, yet it dismisses alternative choices by educators who believe in choice as a prerequisite for democracy.

Obviously, we have built our brave new educational world on the assumption that something good will come of it. But what if, after all the boxes and wires are assembled, all the schools and libraries connected, we should discover that the pesticides we sprayed last year on the Y2K bug helped breed corporate Internet locusts? At this very moment, we're in danger of selling our schools to corporations that spread largess with a knowing wink. By wrapping themselves in the cloak of philanthropy, Microsoft and its imitators may deflect criticism, but their apostles turn children into "users" and habituate them to a corporate platform. In their Church of Latter Day Technology, these celebrants preach with missionary zeal: "Give me a child, and I'll make her a Microsoft user for life."

Unfortunately, the current climate finds many policymakers so immersed in the technology thought collective that they cannot imagine its potential harm. As a result, they call for a "national mobilization" to push technology into all walks of life without pausing to consider the impact of a computer culture upon a child's language and perceptions. We'd do well, though, to ask how we're shaping a child who uses computer software to "draw" a picture and save it as a "document" recognized as a "file" placed in a "folder" upon a metaphorical "desktop." While applauding her creativity and "computer skills," we also give tacit approval to this child's initiation in a corporate culture.

Despite the slick assurances of myopic salespeople, duplicitous philanthropists and authoritarian commissions, technology alone will not solve our education problems. In fact, there's plenty of evidence suggesting that computer technology will exacerbate problems within our schools and communities unless we pay close attention to its impact on our humanity. As recent tragedies have demonstrated, 21st-century adolescents have enough technology to do harm. Question is, are they getting enough human education to do good?