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I would not. Kids should be outside playing and interacting with other kids, not coding.
by nether 9y ago
I would not. Kids should be outside playing and interacting with other kids, not coding.
- danpalmer 9y agoWhy are those two things mutually exclusive?
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoCoding outside while running around sounds like a bad idea. But if you meant non-concurrently, then I agree: kids have lots of time, especially if you don't allow them very much screen (TV, play computer) time.
- 5ilv3r 9y agoI learned php on a handspring visor with the manual downloaded into a offline browser app while on the playground. Couldn't even run my code until I got home and hotsynced it!
- ams6110 9y agoCoding, in my experience, tends to consume a lot of time especially for a kid who is getting into it. I think many of us here can recall the long hours or even all-night coding sessions we did when we were young, learning, and everything about programming was new, exciting, and frustrating at the same time. When I was young (12-15) I spent a lot of time programming and very little interacting with other people outside of school hours. The same thing can happen with video games or even reading of course.
- jontewks 9y agoThey aren't asking for parenting advice here. Kids need more than just playing outside, hence the whole school thing.
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoI like how you went right ahead and contradicted your advice - kids don't need school either, lots of kids thrive on "education otherwise" (a UK expression covering unschool, homeschool, home ed, etc.).
- jontewks 9y agoAll versions of learning, not just playing outside. Didn't think this was very hard to understand. Then again I went to school...
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoThe substantive point was that you said they didn't need parenting advice and then gave parenting advice in the next sentence. Adding an implied ad hominem remark doesn't alter the fact you immediately contradicted your own advice. If you meant "structured education of some form" and instead specified "school" I don't really see it's obvious the generality was intended. Indeed the likelihood arises now -- given your implicit suggestion that people who don't attend formal schooling are somehow deficient -- that in fact you only considered school when you made your initial remark.
- quickthrower2 9y agoI think you read too much into it. He was just countering nether's remark. To do that he gave an example.
- tjbiddle 9y agoWhile I agree, you don't want to stifle your kids childhood; these are not mutually exclusive. You teach your kids how to read, how to do math, history of the world - Computer science will soon be no different. Might as well get ahead and teach them during learning time.
- danellis 9y ago> Computer science will soon be no different What makes you think that? It's a very specialized field. It's not going to be something parents are casually teaching to their kids.
- olkid 9y agoTyping class has been replaced by computer classes. I think it's an eventual reality, albeit a slow process.