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India Rejects One Laptop per Child Program
ex-geek writes "Seems like Negroponte's One Laptop per Child program has been
rejected by the Ministry of Human Resource Development of India. Among the objections are concerns about the effect of extensive laptop use on children's health. Better uses for the monies, which would be required to roll out the OLPC project, are also named. Most insightful however is the observation that not one industrial country has so far implemented a similar program for its children, which casts doubt as to what the pedagogical use for notebooks in class really is."
Riiiight, because all of us who grew up with computers are so mentally developmentally retarded it's a wonder we can tie our shoes.
As for the medical studies, keep in mind that these computers' greatest benefit would be to kids who can't even go to school, connecting them to information and learning materials. Would you rather have a problem with carpal, or be utterly uneducated? The answer will be different for different people, I admit, but education is the only way out of where India is getting itself. History tells us that educated nations have lower birth rates and that is going to be more than desirable in India very soon.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"Are my analytical skills impoverished because I ran around in the woods and played with sticks instead of playing the living room with shiny, plastic transformers?"
Given the statement:
"I remember being bored to tears by He-Man and G.I. Joe figures that required no imagination -- everything they did was pre-determined."
and
"I did *want* those toys that other kids had -- but when I got them, I certainly couldn't play with them. They were much to boring. They just sat on the shelf as models. That's really what they are."
I'm going to have to say yes.
They can just double the price of their regular laptops. This won't hurt them because their fanboys won't admit or notice that there was a price increase.
No, your logic must be hindered if you can possibly come to the conclusion that an action figure (doll if you will) has all of it's actions predefined. It shows a distinct lack of imagination, and poor reasoning skills.
I may think I'm really smart, but I have no illusions that make me think a 30-year-old who is incapable of accomplishing a task that I easily handled at 8, has a fully functional mind.
Or, were you just being pretentious by implying that those who like toys that are mass manufactured are somehow not as good as you? You wouldn't be one of those people would you?