Comment by lostlogin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lostlogin | Hacker News Reader

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I am married to a teacher who teaches 8-9 year olds. This is her perspective from many years with that age group.

Computers and screens are introduced too early. The kids just use them to zone out and mess around.

The kids all forget their passwords, so login is a pain. To solve this the school made the same password for all. Some brat sets all the girls avatars to boobs. The various ways kids look up porn is a continual frustration.

It doesn’t add to the learning, it makes lazy teachers lives easier. Some classes play Minecraft - I’m unclear how that’s teaching. Some use iPads to take creative photos. It’s not creative and is a waste of time and lazy.

Computers have a place in schools, and it’s with older kids than 8-9 and needs to be way more prescriptive when used with <10 year olds.

Edit: Probably relevant, my wife and I went to a Steiner school, as does our kid. That system has a pretty old fashioned view on screen time and devices - as I started typing this our child stated that metal work and leather work lessons were starting soon.

How many of us learned about computers first because we were playing video games, such as minecraft? How many of us learned what a "frame" was, and learned that "RAM" and "HDD" were things?

That familiarity builds over years to give you a half decent mental model for a computer - one that is a massive aid to college freshman learning CS.

Perhaps screens are being introduced too early, certainly there is a point where a game like minecraft is not teaching, but I wouldn't dismiss the concept outright. Familiarity with computers is why some kids soar through CS degrees and others feel like they were missing some secret pre-college class.

The thing is that most schools use platforms that are mainly meant for consumption: tablets and chrome books. You're right that many people in the previous generations picked up useful skills, but that is because we were using platforms that were primarily intended for work and creation. They were also a lot less streamlined so understanding the underlying tech was a requirement to get to the good parts.

>Some classes play Minecraft - I’m unclear how that’s teaching

There are definitely ways to teach within Minecraft. Redstone springs to mind, but I imagine there are others.

> The kids all forget their passwords, so login is a pain.

I really wish Google would make fingerprint sensors standard for Chromebooks.

I'm not sure collecting kids biometrics makes anything better. Fingerprints are easy to find, capture, and replicate using things students have readily available like glue or gummy bears (https://it.slashdot.org/story/10/10/28/0124242/aussie-kids-f...). Once a fingerprint is compromised the user is screwed forever because it can't be reset.

You have a point, but I don't think a thirteen year old slashdot post is the best way to illustrate it. Fingerprint authentication has to be implemented correctly, or else it does face the problem you mentioned, and other ones as well. Which Apple did. You can't steal the fingerprint out of an Apple Secure Enclave and compromise it like you're thinking. So it would need to be done right, which Google is capable of mandating for Chromebooks.

As far as Gummy bears are involved, my read of the Cisco Talos Threat Intelligence group report*, vs the competency and resources available to 13-year olds (who are not to be underestimated, tbc), is that the gummy bear trick no longer works.

* https://blog.talosintelligence.com/fingerprint-research/

I would love to here about how Waldorf education impacted your and your wife's adult life compared to the average bear. I am so close to moving so that my child can go to a Steiner school...

Waldorf schools are dangerous anti-vax strongholds https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/nyregion/measles-outbreak...

It’s certainly there but my experience is that it isn’t that different to what goes on at the school (non Waldorf) where my wife teaches.

That said, I’m in New Zealand, which was quite highly vaccinated and also mandated vaccinations for teachers.

I rate the system for getting kids to want to learn - not just at school, after finishing schooling too.

Waldorf school have a nazi like base idea that you can evaluate people/kids based on their head forms (no joke)

Pls try not to support something like this :(

I tend to agree.

One counter point is that I learnt how to touch type at that age at school, admittedly on an Apple II which limited most of the problems you listed. It has been a handy skill to have.

I like the idea of kids robotics with Scratch. I want to believe that there is an opportunity with children to experience the excitement of blinking an Led with a microbit for example and suspect it would be more difficult for teenagers.

Mostly I want my kids to have an understanding of what computers can be used to create earlier than later.

They really should just print the password and tape it to the inside of the lid...

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