Re: [Slightly OT] Philosophy (was Re: Replacement for Abiword: LyX? Openoffice?)
On Tue, 2003-10-21 at 17:01, Thomas Thurman wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 21, 2003 at 04:13:49PM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote:
> > 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?
>
> (Gosh, I never thought of that. Guess we should close down Debian Jr.)
Gross over-reaction. When my kids are older, they still will
need simple Linux-based tools. A threadlet of "Replacement for
Abiword" discussed this.
> > 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.)
>
> That doesn't mean anything one way or the other: you can't tell
> what your life would have been like had you started using computers
> earlier. Nor can I tell what mine would have been like had I not
> been exposed to computers as a child. Until one or the other of us
> can find a proper study, it's not really worth quoting such things
> as evidence.
If you are curious and drawn to technology, you would have arrived
sooner or later. Maybe not as a programmer; maybe as an engineer,
or an artist. So what? After all, having more professional engineers
is a good thing.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Johnson, Jr. ron.l.johnson@cox.net
Jefferson, LA USA
"(Women are) like compilers. They take simple statements and
make them into big productions."
Pitr Dubovitch
Reply to: