Timeline for How early should you teach children how to code?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
19 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 24, 2021 at 16:26 | history | bounty ended | Timur Shtatland | ||
| Mar 17, 2021 at 12:29 | comment | added | Aaron F | Jobs wasn't alone - I've been forbidding everyone I know from using Apple tech for decades now! :D | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 21:28 | comment | added | Peter - Reinstate Monica | @Clay07g Re "advice about having deep talks is off topic": It would seem so at first glance. But in the given context I considered it important. Because what is it that the tech moguls think benefits their children's development? Not computers, but hands-on experience with physical objects, in the tradition of Montessori. And what do I think benefited my son most? What stands out are not computers (with which he spends a lot of time) but direct face-to-face communication which were emotionally involving and intellectually stimulating. It is a juxtaposition. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 20:31 | comment | added | Timur Shtatland | @Peter-ReinstateMonica, tim, Clay07g: Thank you, Peter, for a very thoughtful answer! IMO, it is not a frame challenge (BTW, frame challenges are OK on Parenting. SE). I understood this answer as not advocating early introduction to coding, due to known negative side effects of technology. See also the film The Social Dilemma (Wikipedia, film site, Netflix). The issues described in Peter's answer and in this movie are worth considering. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 17:24 | comment | added | tim | I get that this is a frame challenge answer, but if the advice is basically 'as late as possible (or never)', that imho requires some better sources. As an aside, Waldorf is based on the esoteric anthroposophy ideology & at least partially tied to völkisch nationalism, so it may not be the best alternative to classical education. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 16:10 | comment | added | Clay07g | It boils down to the fact that this question not only doesn't ask for opinions on computers, it explicitly asked you not to share them. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 15:59 | comment | added | Clay07g | @Peter-ReinstateMonica Okay, I'll rephrase that. This is, objectively, not an answer to the question. Corporate tech executive opinions on cell phones are irrelevant to pretty much any conversation, let alone questions about programming. And advice about having deep talks is off topic because this question is not "what, in your opinion, is the best way to keep a child's mind productive?". | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 15:57 | review | Low quality posts | |||
| Mar 16, 2021 at 18:30 | |||||
| Mar 16, 2021 at 15:55 | comment | added | Peter - Reinstate Monica | @Clay07g That is sad. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 15:49 | comment | added | Clay07g | I don't understand how this answers the question or how it's even remotely related to it. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 14:28 | comment | added | NotThatGuy | "looking at my home office self discipline as a programmer I very much doubt that preschoolers deal better with temptation than I do" - This seems like apples and oranges. I assume this is more coding out of obligation (i.e. your job) than purely for fun, most kids are pretty used to doing a range of activities on a daily basis, they aren't quite as insistent on mostly doing the things they enjoy most (except maybe when acting up) and letting them code doesn't mean exposing them to the internet, social media, addictive games and other things you can do on a computer. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 10:48 | comment | added | Peter - Reinstate Monica | @Luc True. But as I said, the attitude seems to reflect a general skepticism about exposing children to computers in general. A computer nowadays is always also a communication, distraction and play device, as I can attest to first-hand. You know, I should be working right now! | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 10:46 | comment | added | Peter - Reinstate Monica | (ctd.) Wikipedia quotes one of the tenets of Montessori as "The first-plane child [0-6 years] is seen as a concrete, sensorial explorer", and the materials to work with would reflect that. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 10:44 | comment | added | Peter - Reinstate Monica | @RobP. I can only answer the Montessori (and Waldorf) question. Both have pretty clear ideas about children's development, Waldorf people perhaps in a more dogmatic fashion. The wikipedia page for Montessori says "Freedom within limits" and "Nature in the classroom and outside of the classroom". That's setting a tone. But they seem indeed open to integrate computers in a limited fashion (e.g. pebblecreekmontessori.org/…). I think the key is "limited". (ctd.) | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 10:41 | comment | added | Luc | Giving them portable media consumption and chatting devices (in your quotes the examples given are "cellphones" and "iPad"s) is not the same as teaching them to code on a laptop or desktop. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 9:55 | comment | added | Rob P. | I appreciate this answer but I'm a little unclear on two points. First - do we know why Jobs disallowed cellphone access? There are countless reasons to restrict that but still encourage access to an offline home PC to learn BASIC or whatever. Second - my limited understanding of Montessori schools are that they encourage learning in whatever the student wants. If a child wanted to learn coding, they'd be encouraged to. I'm not sure if these things are evidence against teaching children to code or just some parents avoiding certain technology and public schools. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 8:09 | comment | added | Peter - Reinstate Monica | @Pavel True. I addressed that in the penultimate paragraph mentioning the self-discipline. The general trend of the digerati is clearly not embracing the computer though and instead focus on "real" experiences. Whether they make an exception from that trend and let their kids learn how to program is anybody's guess. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 5:21 | comment | added | Pavel | Discouraging or forbidding computers at certain situations is very different (one could even argue the exact opposite) of teaching kids about programming. The latter is to teach kids how to master machines while the former is teaching kids how not to be ruled by them. One of my best university teachers never had a computer on his main office desk, yet he very much used one and was very profficient at telling it what to do and how to do it. | |
| Mar 16, 2021 at 1:05 | history | answered | Peter - Reinstate Monica | CC BY-SA 4.0 |