The new possibilities for self-fulfillment while communicating in new and more immediate ways with a growing and changing world that have been opened up by computers should be offered to all young people, and most states have launched campaigns to teach computer literacy. As we implement state-mandated computer literacy curricula, however, we need to consider carefully those issues surrounding educational computing that are related to classroom computer use as well as the social implications of computing. Two of these concerns are equity and gender. Equitable distribution of the benefits of computing must begin with a more critically-aware and concerned body of professionals to ensure that educational computing is used to compensate for, rather than to reinforce, social inequities and differences in ability. With regard to gender, comparatively few high school females are currently active in computer science, and even in elementary classrooms, computers seem to "belong" to the males. Both of these issues can be addressed successfully when teachers organize computer instruction and usage around the themes of creating, informing, and communicating, rather than around the machines themselves. These themes stress the importance of the computer as a user-controlled and user-beneficial tool, allowing all computer literacy students to be accepted for what they are and can be, and for what they want and need. (LMM)