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Comment by burnto | Hacker News Reader

I still see picture books as an introductory path to literacy for kids, but unlike posting fan fiction on AO3, I have never heard a “success story”, where someone credits their early experience with picture books as key to a fulfilling career. Anyone?

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The snarky analogy doesn’t really really work because plenty of people actually do credit video games for their successful career, myself included. Thanks, Roblox.

And plenty of great authors start with fanfic. Like actually. But apologies the snark landed that way. I was not intending to diminish people learning via game modding at all.

What I found irritating in the post is the premise that what we put in front of kids should be judged by counts of attributions to career success.

> What I found irritating in the post is the premise that what we put in front of kids should be judged by counts of attributions to career success.

For a start, that's effectively the premise it's sold on. And for another thing, if it's not contributing to the kind of thinking that would help with that job, what is it other than another esoteric game?

There are many things that no one will think to later attribute to “career success” that were in fact foundational to their learning and development.

In my experience it’s designed around a make/build/experiment pedagogical approach, not as a bootcamp system to get kids into programming careers

I'm guessing that Roblox will be responsible for more people learning programming than essentially any other single entity

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library project had to have had some justification.

I think picture books are not the same as Scratch. Scratch is much farther along that process. An equivalent might be comic books or graphic novels, which people actually do attribute a love of either as an introduction to fulfilling careers.

I still see mashed peas as an introductory path to solid food for kids, but unlike attending Montessori schools, I have never seen a "success story", where someone credits their early experience with avant-garde curriculum as a key to a fulfilling career. Anyone?

Same distance, from A to B to C. Thanks for wasting all of our time with you comment.

The absurdity is the point. Comparing the merits of scratch vs game modding in children’s eventual programming career success is such a silly overly serious adult thing to do. If kids experience fun and exploration while learning along the way, that’s what matters.

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