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October 5, 2006 | New Jersey Jewish News Central Feature |
Maureen Greenbaum, a mother of two, doesn’t quake at the mention of the Internet the way many parents do; the more Web sites that come to mind — including a whole host of Jewish ones — the more enthusiastic she sounds.
“The important thing is to check out what your kids are enjoying and share their pleasure,” she said, chatting over lunch at a favorite restaurant in Westfield.
With fears of Internet predators heightened by the current uproar about e-mails sent to teenagers by former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), such support could be the best protection parents can offer their kids. Greenbaum promotes efforts to get on the same page in order to encourage children to be open about what they’re exploring and encountering.
As the creator of on-line courses for everyone from little kids to professional colleagues, Greenbaum is an obvious champion of the cyber-world and all it offers.
But that doesn’t mean she’s naive about the dangers. The Web site of her computer consulting firm, www.SUMWARE.com, includes a practical section headlined: “Keeping kids safe on the Internet — a tough job but you’ve gotta do it.” It includes links to a number of protective systems.
But being paranoid about the Web will get you nowhere, she said.
“Everyone’s worried about the dark side, but it’s the same as with magazines. There are good ones, and there are bad ones. If you forbid your kids to look at certain sites at home, they can find them at a friend’s. Any walls that are put up, my son will tell you how to break them down.” The only thing you can do, she said, is teach your kids good values and hope they stick.
She put her attitude to the toughest test. When their younger son was entering eighth grade, she and her husband, Howard, a retired computer expert himself, decided he should be home-schooled for that year. Until then, the youngster had been miserable in middle school, and his parents wanted him to have a chance to regroup.
Greenbaum of Watchung teaches part-time at Union County College in Cranford, delivering “distance learning” courses on computer applications and Web site development, and runs a home-based computer consulting firm, so she was around to supervise his studies. In fact, she said, she didn’t need to provide much oversight. “He’s not all that into studying, but when he knows that something has to be done, he gets down to it,” she said.
After the year at home — tapping into a curriculum offered by Johns Hopkins University and text books offered on-line — he made the transition back to classroom learning, easing into public high school with no trouble at all, academically or socially.
In the late 1990s, inspired by the wealth of learning her own child was enjoying on the computer, Greenbaum began thinking about children who lacked such possibilities and how it might jeopardize their chances later on. She set up a program for the YMCA in Plainfield, to give underprivileged kids a chance to make the most of that extraordinarily receptive learning period.
Their older son, Adam, a decade older than
Noah and thus less a product of the Internet age, is adept with
technology.
He works with NBC in New York City, handling computer security
systems. “It was a different story when he was little,” Greenbaum
said.
She did tap the electronic world’s potential in some ways when Adam was a teenager, and she sees it as a great tool for parents. “We instant-messaged each other all the time, even when I was working in the room next door to him. When he went away to college, we just carried on i.m.-ing, so there wasn’t as much sense of separation as there would have been.”
Her own passion for computers was ignited in the late 1960s during a job she had one summer between college semesters. A mentor in the company showed her some of the wonders of this relatively new medium, and she was hooked. She went on to complete a computer science degree (summa cum laude) at Boston University. Later — studying alongside her husband, whom she describes as her best friend and fellow computer lover — she earned an MBA at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison. The following year, she came back to the MBA program, teaching a course in management information systems.
As a programmer and analyst and later a systems creator, she was in on the pioneering adventure of telecommunication development.
It is as a teacher — sharing the passion she and her husband share for this medium — that she has probably made her greatest contribution. Greenbaum, who took education courses at Kean University in Union and Seton Hall in South Orange, has created computer courses for classrooms and “distance learning” on the Internet.
While describing herself as tone deaf and “artistically challenged” (by way of copping out of responsibility for aesthetic design), she also creates Web sites for lucky friends and nonprofit organizations (including the magicians’ society to which Howard belongs).
“Our kids’ world is so different than the one we grew up in,” she said, and added, “I suppose I’m lucky that I more or less understand it.”
She sees no reason why the rest of us
shouldn’t also understand it. To find help with that process, she
offers a
host
of tips on her Web site. It is populated with the kind of thing only
someone this comfortable with technology would have — a bevy of lady
bugs that follow your cursor. There is also a constantly changing
tally of the cost of the war in Iraq.
The Jewish sites she recommends cover everything from Yiddishisms in English usage to cartoons, Hebrew lessons, political coverage of Israel, and a virtual tour of Jerusalem. They come under the heading “Enjoying it,” along with jokes, quotes, and “e-charity.” Though not observant herself, she has explored with admiration the way Orthodox groups have made the most of the Web, creating all kinds of educational and discussion sites.
“Whenever someone tells me about a new site I like, or I come across one I find interesting, I add it to the list,” Greenbaum said. With a computer handily situated on her kitchen counter, that can happen between instant-messaging her sons and experimenting with new recipes.