"Many of us were educated in the 60s and 70s without a computer in every room"
Perhaps you hadn't noticed. The world has changed since 1960. PC's are everywhere now and some knowledge is required in just about any business.
True, but is it really necessary for kids under 12 to know use one? One might argue that the computer has replaced critical thought with the ability to simply insert text. The idea that we teach the kids to think then teach them to compute seems pretty rational to me.