*why I'm passionate about the Internet and grateful it's become*
   available for everybody* 17 year old Kenneth Udut wrote in 1989:
   "The public school system I went to for nine years is set up to
   GIVE information and to GET BACK from the students precisely
   what the teacher GAVE out in the first place.* This is not
   learning.* This school that I now go to doesn't GIVE me anything
   but POINTS me in the direction to go and GUIDES me along the
   pathway to TRUE LEARNING which, to me, is the ability to teach
   myself what I want to learn and how I want to go about it.* I
   have found it's more difficult to travel this way than it is to
   be pushed along in the public school system, but I feel that I
   am experiencing my learning much more fully than by just getting
   the scent of it and going on." I went to a public school until
   the 9th grade.* I got a full scholarship to a tiny tiny private
   school for my high school. The contrast was amazing to me.* I
   had classes, but I was able to teach myself. I guess I've been
   fascinated by Education since that school switch and
   experiencing the difference has stuck with me.* it is also why I
   am such a fan of people extending their own learning on the 'net
   in whatever ways they want, with whatever they want to know more
   about. While the 'net wasn't available for me until later in
   high school (and even then, it was just hacker-Ken joining chat
   rooms), I've been lucky to witness my dream of people being able
   to educate themselves in what interests them actually HAPPEN...
   not just for a few people lucky enough to get in a small school,
   but for EVERYBODY of every age on the Internet. Yes, libraries
   existed.* But no, there's nothing like the Internet.* I've been
   in both worlds, and this one?* Better.* So much better.* I feel
   bad for kids whose parents excessively restrict their Internet
   use.* They're robbing their kids of the opportunity to learn
   what they want, how they want, when they want, meet new people,
   try new things, and become more who they want to be, rather than
   who their parents/teachers expect them to be.