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Comment by sdfin | Hacker News Reader

I'm also from Argentina, and about 6 years ago I worked in a public school.

I think giving computers to children is good only if the quality of education they receive is good. I saw many children using their government-given computers to play GTA san andreas and Counter Strike while they were in the middle of a class, and the teachers didn't do anything about it because the government forbids them to take reasonable disciplinary measures (A teacher wants a child to pay attention during a class? Good luck, there's not much he/she can do) and also the goverments forces the teachers to make everyone pass every exam because "it is stigmatizing" for the children to get a bad mark on a test.

What I comment sounds absurd, but I have no reason to lie about it.

So, even if I consider it can be benefical to give computers to students in some conditions, in Argentina it's not well implemented.

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> I think giving computers to children is good only if the quality of education they receive is good.

This is 100% false.

A computer allows them to watch YouTube and see tutorials on everything they may want to learn. It _forces_ them to learn to how read and read quickly to digest all the information they get on social networks. It allows them to know that there are such things as spreadsheets and document editors.

This is so much more important than many classes that it can't be understated how critical this is. If these children instead had to go to private computer literacy classes when they turn 21 because they need to write a CV or access a government website, they will have wasted away a ton of potential.

All the children mentioned in the article did not have a good education, but they had a tool that enabled them to make do without it.

Yes, I agree, there are many advantages. Still I saw various high school level children who were able to get a torrent and launch GTA San Andreas in their computers, but at the same time they were unable to read in a fluent way and of comprehending texts.

I mean, autonomous children, and children with certain interests can learn a lot just by having a computers, while others won't learn much. But still, the exposure to a computer is helfpul for all of them.

I was too extreme in what I expressed. Both having computers and good education are positives.

Sure, but it's worth wasting 99 laptops if even we manage to enable one child to get a better education, and that's even before considering that the other 99 laptops are probably not going to be wasted either.

The problem is more than half of the children live in poverty. Maybe making sure they can eat is a better first step.

Good point. There's a hierarchy of priorities. First prevent children from starving, then give them computers. It's true that in Argentina more than half of children live in poverty https://chequeado.com/hilando-fino/casi-6-de-cada-10-chicos-...

Yes, and the way you do that is by increasing their chances of being able to integrate productively into the rest of the economy. How do you think a person who knows how to send emails and open Google Docs stacks up against a person who doesn't?

I understand your point and share it. Still, I believe you have no idea about what happens in Argentina's educational system. I share what a teacher explains about her experience in Argentina's schools. It's in spanish, but I believe that twitter has a translate function. The thread starts here https://twitter.com/sonripink/status/1407088057778647053

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