[Gllug] Logo as a first language

[Holger Duerer]

>>>>> "Nix" == Nix  <nix at esperi.org.uk> writes:
    Nix> On Fri, 04 Mar 2005, Holger Duerer said:
    >> It all sounds to me like just another facet of the current
    >> trend to put our children as early as possible into the rat
    >> race that we call life.  Competitiveness, competitiveness,
    >> competitiveness.  Give them computers as early as possible
    >> otherwise they might fall behind...

    Nix> There's substantial evidence from psychology, paediatry and
    Nix> neurology that introducing people to some things
    Nix> (particularly languages) as young as possible is
    Nix> beneficial. Humans eeem to be optimized for learning
    Nix> languages between the ages of about one and five.

Yes, I know.  My sons are being raised bilingually.  But are you
arguing that computer languages also count as 'languages' or just
generally that exposure to brain challenging things is good?

If the former than I have to disagree.  If the latter than I generally
agree but:

a) My opinion is that there are more important things to teach our
   children.  We have only limited resources and there is only a
   limited amount of time/attention/... that the children have so we
   have to make decisions what to teach them or expose them to in
   order to develop them.

b) I object to the message that comes with the computer education,
   i.e. the pressure to learn things that will be useful in the
   future.

Governments just like computers in schools because it is
- a cheap solution; invest money once and be done with it for a few
  years -- much cheaper than hiring new teachers which incur costs
  every month.  And we won't need training for the teachers; if they
  don't know IT we can blame them for not keeping up to date.
- it makes them look good, innovative, modern, progressive, ... (put in
  your favourite political buzz word) because the general voter is
  also a religious believer in technology
- it is a technical 'solution'; technical solutions are so much nicer
  than other types as they are cheap (see above) and measurable
  (hooray, new targets!).  Too bad the real problems are more of a
  cultural and organisational type...

    Nix> I'm fairly convinced that if I hadn't been given access to
    Nix> computers early (the age of four, in my case), I'd be *much*
    Nix> worse at them than I am now. I've rarely encountered anyone
    Nix> who first met computers post-adolescence who I'd describe as
    Nix> good (although there are of course certain genius exceptions:
    Nix> e.g. Don Knuth).
Erm.  I cannot really comment on this as I don't know enough people in
IT who are old enough.  I *do* know that most people exposed to
computers in their youth are just as crap at programming as e.g my
father is.

  [...]

    Nix> If you're just a user, not a developer, it's probably not so
    Nix> important.
Indeed.  And how many developers do we need in the future?  Enough to
warrant wasting all children's time with computers today?

    Nix> (In my case I'm especially lucky; if it hadn't been for that
    Nix> early chance encounter with computers I'd probably be either
    Nix> unemployable or institutionalized now, as this seems to be
    Nix> the fate of people with severe Asperger's who don't happen to
    Nix> focus on something useful...)

Heck, I hadn't been exposed to computers in my youth I might have
turned out to be a more social person.  Or I could have become an
accountant and made lots of money...

           Holger
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