In Which I do not Talk about Porn

For my last programming class before reviewing and then finals, I gave a brief history of computers, complete with my short speeches on Discriminating Against Homosexuality is Wrong Because Alan Turing and Women Should Totally be in Tech Fields Because Ada Lovelace.   To my astonishment some of the kids were nodding in agreement when I talked about not discriminating against anyone, even homosexuals.   Then I braced myself and asked them what they thought about computers in Tanzania and the future of computing.  My Morogoro students would have immediately started talking about destruction of our African culture and porn.  In fact, even the students here ask me about porn when they are in small groups, and frankly, I'm tired of fielding the question of "does porn encourage immoral behaviour?" because I think it's a silly question based on a creepy preoccupation with other people's sexuality and a tendency to blame external sources for cultural phenomena which may or may not be either new or problematic.  To my delight, however, the students were actually raising far more valid points, not parroted from the official government talking points.  For example, one student said he didn't think that computerizing services in Tanzania would be a good idea until the electricity situation was better.  This would be difficult to gainsay.  A few students wanted to talk about how computers should be in secondary schools and how bad secondary schools are, which is always a fun topic.  One young man wanted to know what projects he could possibly work on since everything in the field of computing had already been done.  (I told him to look for things that don't work as well as they should and make them a little better.  Progress doesn't have to be big.)  So I'm happy with my programming class right now.  Of course, later that day I tried to go teach multimedia.  Had to wait for 15 minutes for the keys to be found so I could get into the lab, and then the power went out.  Well, I tried.