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You want your children to become programmers like you? Not one of the thousands of other jobs? You want to force them to be mini-esayms without their own minds?

You want your children to become programmers like you? Not one of the thousands of other jobs? You want to force them to be mini-esayms without their own minds? You don't want them to make friends, socialize, network with their peers? To explore their own wants and desires in the safety of a school without your constant disapproval? You want them to spend their 20s in counselling complaining about their bizarre dad who schooled them at home and forced them to work instead of grow? 2 sides to every coin.

awakeasleep 11y ago
You're imagining a world where people go to college and find high paying jobs after following their dream without their parents holding them back. That is actually a marketing story, dangerous and unrealistic to believe. Esaym is talking about teaching his kids a real skill they can use. It certainly won't override their ability to learn and persue things- it'll actually make that possible. It'll enable them to make decisions in life without having to pray they can find a way to make money, and they'll have a fundamental skill that'll help them whichever way they decide to go. People don't generally get good jobs by their own elbow grease. They get them because of their network and connections. Your family is a huge part of that network, and passing on a skill like a trade is one of the surest ways you can ensure your children actually have a future.
- mattmanser 11y ago
  Wake-up call, we're a community of programmers and contrary to our echo-chamber, programming is 1 skill of the thousands which make money. I know a range of different people, none of them are programmers. Do you think only programmers make money? I am actually shocked and disgusted by his idea of parenting. He wants to isolate them from other children and teach them one skill instead of letting them learn a range and choose. Re-read what he said, he wants to exclude them from school and get them to work on his business from the age of 13. I don't expect the public school system to teach my children anything. Hence why they won't be attending. I fully expect to start "outsourcing" my web dev work to my children when they are 13.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 11y ago
    Well, if the US school system is that bad, I'd expect rather extreme solutions to emerge. His plan could be perfectly rational for his situation.
  - sunwooz 11y ago
    I would've loved it if I never went to school. Especially as a minority living in a white neighborhood -- it was pretty much hell every day.
    - esaym 11y ago
      I didn't see much of a point to my public schooling either. Everything I learned there could've been taught by my parents, except they really had no career skills themselves. The "minority" issue you speak of is interesting. Up until 4th grade, I went to a small country school where every one was white. There was only one teacher per grade, and each grade had 15-20 kids or so. Then because my mom re-married, I moved to a more city location. It was the complete opposite. I was bullied for the next 4 years for being white...
    - restalis 11y ago
      You assume the problems you had were for being a minority, which may be true. You could however have had a similar hell schooling without having a handy social issue to blame. Many of us (nerds) had that hard time as kids with or without racial discrimination.
  - inanutshellus 11y ago
    I feel like you're reading what you want to read into Esaym's post. And I suspect you don't have kids. I have two young kids and let me tell you the siren song of mediocrity is strong. Everything that requires a little bit of extra effort is undercut with "Daaaaad can we watch teeveeeee instead of soccer/coloring/math/bubbles/running/programming/bicycling/gymnastics/dancing/karate/naval-frickin'-gazing?" Obviously what the GP is saying is that he's at least /intending/ to (a) send them to private school (b) teach them a skill he thinks will give them self-confidence and the ability to value their efforts. That's it. That's all ANY parent wants. My only real caution would be to say that I really don't expect web development to be a shockingly high paying job for my kids' lifetime. But yeah, basically you teach your kids to love solving problems and the world will be their oyster. So the theory goes.
nostrademons 11y ago
None of those are mutually exclusive with teaching your kids programming at an early age, or even with pulling them out of school.

awakeasleep 11y ago

You're imagining a world where people go to college and find high paying jobs after following their dream without their parents holding them back. That is actually a marketing story, dangerous and unrealistic to believe. Esaym is talking about teaching his kids a real skill they can use. It certainly won't override their ability to learn and persue things- it'll actually make that possible. It'll enable them to make decisions in life without having to pray they can find a way to make money, and they'll have a fundamental skill that'll help them whichever way they decide to go. People don't generally get good jobs by their own elbow grease. They get them because of their network and connections. Your family is a huge part of that network, and passing on a skill like a trade is one of the surest ways you can ensure your children actually have a future.

mattmanser 11y ago
Wake-up call, we're a community of programmers and contrary to our echo-chamber, programming is 1 skill of the thousands which make money. I know a range of different people, none of them are programmers. Do you think only programmers make money? I am actually shocked and disgusted by his idea of parenting. He wants to isolate them from other children and teach them one skill instead of letting them learn a range and choose. Re-read what he said, he wants to exclude them from school and get them to work on his business from the age of 13. I don't expect the public school system to teach my children anything. Hence why they won't be attending. I fully expect to start "outsourcing" my web dev work to my children when they are 13.
- 2muchcoffeeman 11y ago
  Well, if the US school system is that bad, I'd expect rather extreme solutions to emerge. His plan could be perfectly rational for his situation.
- sunwooz 11y ago
  I would've loved it if I never went to school. Especially as a minority living in a white neighborhood -- it was pretty much hell every day.
  - esaym 11y ago
    I didn't see much of a point to my public schooling either. Everything I learned there could've been taught by my parents, except they really had no career skills themselves. The "minority" issue you speak of is interesting. Up until 4th grade, I went to a small country school where every one was white. There was only one teacher per grade, and each grade had 15-20 kids or so. Then because my mom re-married, I moved to a more city location. It was the complete opposite. I was bullied for the next 4 years for being white...
  - restalis 11y ago
    You assume the problems you had were for being a minority, which may be true. You could however have had a similar hell schooling without having a handy social issue to blame. Many of us (nerds) had that hard time as kids with or without racial discrimination.
- inanutshellus 11y ago
  I feel like you're reading what you want to read into Esaym's post. And I suspect you don't have kids. I have two young kids and let me tell you the siren song of mediocrity is strong. Everything that requires a little bit of extra effort is undercut with "Daaaaad can we watch teeveeeee instead of soccer/coloring/math/bubbles/running/programming/bicycling/gymnastics/dancing/karate/naval-frickin'-gazing?" Obviously what the GP is saying is that he's at least /intending/ to (a) send them to private school (b) teach them a skill he thinks will give them self-confidence and the ability to value their efforts. That's it. That's all ANY parent wants. My only real caution would be to say that I really don't expect web development to be a shockingly high paying job for my kids' lifetime. But yeah, basically you teach your kids to love solving problems and the world will be their oyster. So the theory goes.

nostrademons 11y ago

None of those are mutually exclusive with teaching your kids programming at an early age, or even with pulling them out of school.