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Comment by spacechild1 | Hacker News Reader

> to the point where they have to learn how to navigate a file system in their introductory university courses.

What happened to IT lessons at school? I had IT starting at the age of 13 onwards, and that was in the early 2000s. By the time you graduated from school, you were guaranteed to have at least basic IT skills.

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I think those classes/lessons were added when the availability of computers were kind of so and so, not every kid had a computer at home but most adults at the time understood that computers will be used in the kids future one way or another, so they figured everyone should know it.

At one point it shifted to "everyone has a computer at home" to "everyone has a computer in their pocket, and learns typing by themselves" and the classes seems to have disappeared.

> when the availability of computers were kind of so and so,

I think in the early/mid 2000s most families already had a PC at home. At least all of my friends did.

> "everyone has a computer in their pocket, and learns typing by themselves"

Yeah, that seems to be the sentiment. Of course we all know this is completely wrong.

My IT lessons in the 90s were “here’s how to use spreadsheets and Microsoft office”. It wasn’t until later that I was taught programming and other more foundational concepts that would take me beyond being an office worker that knew how to format and print a letter. Fortunately, I had computers at home and my parents encouraged me to learn how they worked.

> My IT lessons in the 90s were “here’s how to use spreadsheets and Microsoft office”.

Same for me. But these are actually useful skills and I find it strange that they wouldn't be taught anymore.

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