I've Been Bamboozled!_** I was once bamboozled by a television show called _Truth or Consequences_. It featured an all-knowing host, and he played along with a fake contestant to illustrate how he would mess up her life. He showed her a clip of her boyfriend breaking up with her (which had actually happened) and then revealed the truth to her boyfriend. The girl was happy, the guy was unhappy, and the audience was laughing at this poor sap who thought he was going to win back his girlfriend. This show was pretty insulting to me. All I could think of was _How could anyone be so stupid to believe something so stupid_? _Did I make that same mistake_? I realize that such a show is not meant to show someone up, and it's supposed to be played for laughs. But even as a child, this show gave me doubts about people. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie _Waiting for Superman_. It's a good movie and is based on a great book of the same name by Joe Robert Cole. The movie shows the lack of teachers available in our public schools and the struggles that parents face every day to get their children the education they deserve. It really gives you a glimpse of the real world. I remember when the movie first came out, I wanted to show it to my kids. We finally got to see it on a cable television channel that was airing it late at night. It was after eleven o'clock, and we were pretty tired. The movie was long and boring, and my kids started to become antsy. It wasn't what they'd hoped it would be like at all. They kept saying, "This is not like the book at all! This is boring." At about half an hour into the movie, they stopped talking, opened their laptop, and started searching the Internet for other movies that were showing on television that same night. "We can do _this_!" they told me. The movie wasn't what they'd hoped, but they wanted to be a part of it. These kids already knew from other movies that you could rent DVDs or watch them on your computer. It didn't matter what was on TV at night. They had already experienced the world around them. They had _been there_ —on the Internet. They wanted to be involved in the real world too. They were already ahead of where most kids are now. The real-life story in the movie is not new. Schools are in big trouble now, and it's affecting everyone in our communities. It is something that we all have to pay attention to. Kids are so busy getting into trouble online, that they never do get into trouble in the real world. Why should they? In the end, they get in trouble either way. I don't want to be a nag, but this is serious. We're in the age of digital, and you can't separate online from off. I can't tell you how many students are in my office talking about YouTube and playing games during class. If you're an eighth-grader, they are going to get you in trouble for talking about porn on the Internet. You can't talk about that in class because that's the stuff that will stick with you in the future. This isn't a game. They're trying to fool you so they can stay out of trouble. But they are setting you up for life. If you don't pay attention in school, you can forget about ever getting a decent job. If you go to a tech-savvy school, your teachers will know how to deal with computer problems. But the students at _my_ school, the School Without Walls, have never even been exposed to computers. I have one class that has kids who are so ignorant about computers that I gave up even trying to teach them. So they just take breaks to play video games. I don't know where they got the money to buy these things, but my kids don't even have their own computers. They would rather play _Grand Theft Auto_ and watch _South Park_ , rather than try to do things the _right way_. This is their way of getting into trouble. Not doing their homework makes them more money than doing it. This is how they're getting started with bad reputations. But the kids who do take classes, who go to school, are better off than my kids were when they were younger. My wife worked in schools for a long time, and she used to tell me about the things that went on. How some of these kids get hooked on pornography or get into fights. They get so addicted to it that they don't want to work for a living. That's why they're on welfare. _I can't believe that one little cell phone or computer can make you this poor_. Some of the kids have no life at all. I can't begin to tell you how frustrating it is to witness that kind of addiction and not know how to help them. There was this one time, when my son was only five or six years old, that he was playing on a computer and trying to chat with his older brother. It was a game that looked like a cell phone. He wanted to impress his little brother, who had gotten a game console and online account. So he decided to make a Web site, in the worst way possible. I've heard stories where kids get so carried away with this that they'll spend hours talking to people online and get locked out of their computer. They don't notice that they haven't been using it. Then it shuts off the power, and their dog or cat has to be rushed to the emergency vet because it was left in the dark all night. That's when you find out how serious it is. We found out one day that our kids' computer was missing a piece of software. I asked them if they had played around with the computer, and my daughter told me that they were playing with it. I told her that she better find that piece of software and turn it back on. She didn't even ask me why. She knew why. She and her brother never even thought about turning it on. They were playing with it and _taking it apart_! If they had left it on, they wouldn't have even had to take it apart. It would have remained on and would have never been turned off. They were being entertained by it. We didn't put any filters on the computer, and I don't know how long it was off. A week? A month? I don't know, but I've never seen a computer as destroyed as hers was after she lost it. It's the same with the Internet and cell phones. There's a reason kids are dying in accidents all the time. They don't know how to drive. They don't know how to use them. They think that because they have them, they're in control. That's not what the media makes you think. There's nothing cute about someone who can't even use his or her cell phone. It's just bad to be that dumb. I want to tell you what the Internet can do for you. You can be a celebrity without ever being known by anyone. You can get a whole bunch of people to love you. You can get thousands of people to become like you and be like you. I used to think that the kids who talked back and didn't know what they were doing were cool, but I learned that they just become a bunch of lemmings, too. They might not really believe in what they're doing, but they look up to you. It's an immature way to act, but it gets you where you want to be. I thought it was cool to have a MySpace page, but I'm not sure that I still do. All that you have to do is be someone, and you can get so many people to want you. We're always being told that we're supposed to be real people, but it's okay to act like you're someone else too. So all you have to do is lie. I wasn't raised to be that way. I'm not trying to be mean or say that kids that are younger than me aren't cool. I just think it's a _dumb_ way to act. The kids that I've met who are successful are doing what I'm doing— _for the right reasons_. The kids I want to be like did it the right way, even though they may have lied about being famous on the Internet. If I can stop the kids from doing all that, I have to do it. It's the same with video games. I love them. I play them whenever I get a chance. But when kids are playing games that are designed to destroy the brain, I feel like I should be doing something about that. If kids are playing the same game for weeks, it should get to them. They're not getting the same enjoyment out of the game. I love playing with my son. He's like my best friend in the world, but I'm really good at giving him a hard time. It's amazing to me how easy it is to break a kid's spirit. A lot of kids don't even know that this is going on. You can play with them, like a master chess player, and teach them things like I learned about computers and how to stay focused with video games. If they're not interested in what they're doing, you can help them see it. It might