Kids need to be equipped for that. They need to learn to use

Hear the voice of Dennis Moore, who declared with clarity and urgency: “Kids need to be equipped for that. They need to learn to use that technology to keep the new economy going.” These words resound like a trumpet call across the generations, for they speak not only of children and schools, but of the very survival of nations. In them we hear the timeless truth: that the young are the guardians of tomorrow, and if they are not armed with knowledge and skill, the harvest of the future will wither before it is ripe.

For what is this new economy but a vast and shifting sea, powered not by oxen or steam, but by circuits, networks, and digital fire? Those who can sail its waters with skill shall prosper; those who cling only to the shores of the old ways shall be left behind. Moore reminds us that it is not enough to merely hand children tools; they must be equipped, trained in spirit and mind, so that they may master the tools rather than be mastered by them.

History itself bears witness to this truth. In the days of the Industrial Revolution, the children of workers entered mills and factories untrained, often laboring in ignorance. But those communities that taught their young to read, to calculate, to design, became centers of invention and wealth. Nations that neglected the education of their children found themselves dependent on others, their strength weakened, their future mortgaged away. The story is the same in our age: to leave the youth untrained in technology is to abandon them to servitude in a world ruled by others.

Consider the parable of Japan in the late nineteenth century. When the empire awoke from centuries of isolation, it faced the thunder of Western machines. But rather than despair, the leaders equipped their youth—sending students abroad, building schools of engineering, mastering the knowledge of technology. Within a single generation, Japan stood among the world’s powers, not because it was vast, but because it had prepared its children for the new economy. This is the power of foresight, and the fruit of equipping the young.

The words of Moore also stir the heart with warning: a society that fails its children will fail itself. If the young are not prepared, the new economy falters; if they are unskilled, the engines of progress slow. The burden lies not on the children, but upon the elders who must train them. Just as a blacksmith equips his apprentice with hammer and fire, so too must schools and parents equip their children with knowledge, discipline, and the wisdom to wield technology with purpose.

The lesson for us is simple and eternal: invest in the young, and the future will flourish. Neglect them, and all will be lost. Let every parent, teacher, and leader ask: Am I equipping the children for the world they will inherit, or for the world that has already passed away? This question must guide the building of schools, the shaping of policies, and the training of hearts. For the greatest treasure of a nation is not its gold, but its children armed with knowledge.

Practically, this means giving children access not only to devices, but to understanding—teaching them to create, not merely consume; to question, not merely follow; to build tools that serve humanity, not chains that enslave it. Encourage them to learn coding as once they learned letters, to study networks as once they studied rivers, to explore digital realms with the same curiosity that once drove explorers across oceans. In this way, they will not only keep the new economy alive, but shape it with justice, creativity, and wisdom.

Thus the words of Dennis Moore stand as both command and hope: Equip the children. Give them the tools of tomorrow, lest they inherit only the ruins of yesterday. Teach them to use technology not as masters of profit alone, but as stewards of progress. And let each of us, in our time, contribute to this great equipping, that the torch we pass to the next generation may burn brighter than the one we received.