Re: [Slightly OT] Philosophy (was Re: Replacement for Abiword: LyX? Openoffice?)
> Why expose children to computers at such a young
> age? Shouldn't
> they be running and jumping, playing with toys,
> coloring, cutting,
> riding bike/scooter, etc, instead?
>
What does giving children exposure to computers at a
young age necessarily mean that they aren't able to
run, jump, play with toys, colouring, cutting, riding
bicycles and scooters, etc? Why must they choose
either physical activity OR mental activity?
Are you familiar with the concept of stages of
development, or that there are certain developmental
windows which make learning easier? I'd recommend
reading a few books that describe Jungian theory, or
even Chomsky's language aquisition theory. Learning
languages, including computer languages, is very much
something which a child younger than 6 years old's
brain is geared to be accomplishing. It is absolutely
true that people are capable of learning outside of
these windows, or else university would be a moot
point for most of us. That by no means suggests that
we should ignore that those cognitive oppurtunities
exist.
Riordon, our daughter, has her own personality which
we allow her to explore, and to grow. When she is
interested in learning something, we place her in
situations which will facilitate learning. She made it
obvious to us from a very young age that she had an
interest in computers, and in music, and I think it
would've been a disserive to not provided her with
those oppurtunities. That hardly means she's going to
grow up doomed to a solely cerebral existence. She's
taken ballet, general movement class, she does yoga,
she has a bike, a scooter, and rollerskates. She's
begun to learn Spanish, French, and ASL. And yet she
is not stressed, she is not over-worked, busy, or
overextended. She is a very happy child and has plenty
of time to be just that.
I've managed to develop quite multifaceted hobbies and
skills, I'm not entirely sure why I would expect my
child, having only just turned five, to have so
focused her interests that simply putting her infront
of a computer would destine her to be a specialist
capable of nothing else.
> Yes, I have 2 young children: boy aged 5.67, girl
> aged 4.25, and
> yes, I am a database administrator (after being a
> programmer for
> many years), and I've been very successful at it,
> while not having
> been exposed to computers until 12th grade.
> (Although I could have
> used WordStar to type book reports & term papers.)
>
> --
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------
> Ron Johnson, Jr. ron.l.johnson@cox.net
> Jefferson, LA USA
>
> After seeing all the viruses, trojan horses, worms
> and Reply
> mails from stupidly-configured anti-virus software
> that's been
> hurled upon the internet for the last 3 years, and
> the time/money
> that is spent protecting against said viruses,
> trojan horses &
> worms, I can only conclude that Microsoft is
> dangerous to the
> internet and American commerce, and it's software
> should be
> banned.
>
>
> --
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