It's unfortunate that the current generation of school administrators apparently still thinks that the best things you can do with computers are "surf the web", play music, read ebooks, etc. These things are all great, but I think the primary lesson you should teach someone upon handing them their own computer is: "You can do virtually anything you want with this thing. It's unlike any tool we've ever seen before. If you work at it and keep your imagination fired up, you will create things your teachers and counselors and parents have never dreamed of." Why do we continue to insist that secondary languages (modern linguistic and programming languages alike) are too advanced or unnecessary for young kids when in fact the opposite is true? Are we afraid of what they might say? I think so. In the land of the free and home of the brave we sure do teach a lot of suppression and cowardice.
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It's unfortunate that the current generation of school administrators apparently still thinks that the best things you can do with computers are "surf the web", play music, read ebooks, etc. These things are all great, but I think the primary lesson you should teach someone upon handing them their own computer is: "You can do virtually anything you want with this thing. It's unlike any tool we've ever seen before. If you work at it and keep your imagination fired up, you will create things your teachers and counselors and parents have never dreamed of." Why do we continue to insist that secondary languages (modern linguistic and programming languages alike) are too advanced or unnecessary for young kids when in fact the opposite is true? Are we afraid of what they might say? I think so. In the land of the free and home of the brave we sure do teach a lot of suppression and cowardice.