6 ms·

Minecraft is absolutely not helping in the war on screens. As a former educator I laugh heartily at the proposition. Although, I did use "screen time" as a gi

by sova 8y ago

Minecraft is absolutely not helping in the war on screens. As a former educator I laugh heartily at the proposition. Although, I did use "screen time" as a gift-able and earn-able commodity, and in a small classroom of kids it works great to encourage sharing, participation, group watch / observance, and "can I please share with Timmy now so I can have more screentime later?" [success fist]

LoSboccacc 8y ago
As a pre-computer kid I say blaming screens is bogus. I’d do anything not to read the stupid books school gave me. Fun thing I actually was an avid reader, but the curriculum books were totally out of place. At 12yo “Promessi Sposi” and “Divina Commedia” is such a shitty, verbose and convolute prose it killed my interest in literature. Funnily enough I was enjoying at the time reading Calvino and Pirandello, authors I wouldn’t find in the curriculum until five years later. And read literally a ton of comics. So blaming “screens” to me sounds like my average teacher back then totally disconnected with the minds of kids.
- riffraff 8y ago
  Eh, fellow italian I presume, and I concur half-way. But did you really have "Promessi Sposi" as 12yo? I recall having it in the high school curriculum, some 5 years later. It is downright illegible for a small kid anyway, I 100% agree. For me, the teachers' recommended readings for the summer were things of the "good educational readings" kind (To Kill a Mockingbird, Fontamara, Cronache di Poveri Amanti, Il Giardino dei Finzi Contini etc) which are terribly boring for kids. On the other hand, my class had a class library with more enjoyable stuff in it (Tolkien, Calvino, YA stuff).
  - LoSboccacc 8y ago
    yeah I'm pretty sure I was twelve, I was in a summer camp in Ireland and it was the year the blur great escape album came out, we had some leftover chapter to read as summer vacation and I had to bring the book with me. inthe nineties curriculum changed at breakneck speed so anything is possible anyway.
- watwut 8y ago
  This is not first generation that dislikes mandatory readings. That did not changed. Primary purpose of school reading was not to be pleasure reading, it did not had to be and kids read more. Kids often used to start read out of boredom, you used to find fun and easy to read junk in sch situation. Now kids play something or watch videos in that boredom situation. Plus, now kids have more homework and organized activities. And easy to read fun junk is harder to find. But kids not liking what teacher assigned is not new.
  - Pica_soO 8y ago
    >This is not first generation that dislikes mandatory readings. That did not changed. Primary purpose of school reading was not to be pleasure reading, it did not had to be and kids read more. This whole mindset of copy & paste information into new citizen is nightmarish and has bred so much resentment/outright resistance it should be persecuted for destroying a young persons motivation and interest in new things. Youtube and others are laying this idea, that knowledge has to be uninteresting and/or boring to ashes- series like extraHistory, smarterEveryDay, etc. show what is possible and how bad things actually are and where. If someone must force his grownup tastes down upon a not grown up audience, and overrides rejection /disinterest with force - destroying one of the most vital things a new citizen has to bring to this society (intrinsic will to learn / yearning for discovery) the educator should be fired and banned from his / her profession.
    - watwut 8y ago
      You are aware that learning is not done just for pleasure purpose? The purpose is not always to make you like what you read. And that people unable to do "not fun" things or unable to deal with mild dislike of something are not the most vital parts of society. They are too fragile. I am not bashing young people in general here. Most are not like that, even if they read less. Also wtf it is with people that first reaction on anything is threat of firing. It seems like people can't discuss even curriculum without that.
hrktb 8y ago
> war on screen So, is it like the war on drug and war on terrorism ? Also I remember when I was a kid, people were over my back for reading too much books, as I was supposed to “go outside”, “play with the other kids”, “make things with my hand”. I won’t use the eternal ‘I ended up fine’ argument, but in any day and age we’re grindingly pushing kids toward stuff they don’t care about for no decent reason. As a general rule you shouldn’t be at war against stuff your kids are into.
- genidoi 8y ago
  Everything in moderation. Such as stopping your 11 y/o kid from playing runescape at 2am when they should be sleeping. Source: Me.
  - wild_preference 8y ago
    15 years ago I was setting my alarm for 2am to sneak some before-school Runescape! The growing discussion thee days on the long-term effects of sleep deprivation, especially in youth, is a bit scary. :)
    - pnutjam 8y ago
      Pre-runescape here, 2am alarm was for skinimax.
  - hrktb 8y ago
    Yes ! Stopping kids from staying up at night is the funniest game though. The length each party is willing to go to one-up the each other is where you truely get to know each other.
    - PebblesRox 8y ago
      When my husband was a kid, he kept a broken console on hand so that when his dad caught him gaming in bed, he could turn over the broken one and keep playing the real one when his dad left.
  - 8y ago
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
Waterluvian 8y ago
I just don't get why screens are a bad thing. Find balance. Don't demonize the screens. Don't underbalance screen time. We hope all these kids will be successful enough that screens become a core of their careers.
- bodas 8y ago
  Because childhood is a rare time in one's life where you have the freedom to enjoy the outside, and not have to sit in front of a screen. FWIW I don't think books are a good use of time either.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    Not really. You have the freedom to enjoy the outside even as an adult; all it takes is to go out. Go hiking. Play a sport. Get together with some friends. I guess childhood is a rare time where you have the freedom to loiter, but I guess this isn't really true anymore in the Western world, as it's a sure way to get your parents in trouble with social services, thanks to overzealous neighbours.
  - SirensOfTitan 8y ago
    > Because childhood is a rare time in one's life where you have the freedom to enjoy the outside I spend plenty of time outside as an adult. How exactly do adults lose their freedom to enjoy the outside?
  - Nullabillity 8y ago
    > freedom to enjoy the outside The beatings will continue until morale improves.
- aklemm 8y ago
  If they demonstrably damage one's ability to thrive in the world, then we should demonize them. If.
Moodles 8y ago
Reminds me of this xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1227/ https://xkcd.com/1227/
- itronitron 8y ago
  >> they carry it off, to be sulkily read as they travel (1886)
jccalhoun 8y ago
As a current educator -- although I teach college -- I laugh at the war on screens. When I was a kid I was told more than once to put down a book and go outside. I guess my parents were waging a war on books.
brightball 8y ago
At our house we have a system where our kids can earn “30 minute slips” that they can save to use for screen time. Been working freat

by sova 8y ago

LoSboccacc 8y ago

As a pre-computer kid I say blaming screens is bogus. I’d do anything not to read the stupid books school gave me. Fun thing I actually was an avid reader, but the curriculum books were totally out of place. At 12yo “Promessi Sposi” and “Divina Commedia” is such a shitty, verbose and convolute prose it killed my interest in literature. Funnily enough I was enjoying at the time reading Calvino and Pirandello, authors I wouldn’t find in the curriculum until five years later. And read literally a ton of comics. So blaming “screens” to me sounds like my average teacher back then totally disconnected with the minds of kids.

riffraff 8y ago
Eh, fellow italian I presume, and I concur half-way. But did you really have "Promessi Sposi" as 12yo? I recall having it in the high school curriculum, some 5 years later. It is downright illegible for a small kid anyway, I 100% agree. For me, the teachers' recommended readings for the summer were things of the "good educational readings" kind (To Kill a Mockingbird, Fontamara, Cronache di Poveri Amanti, Il Giardino dei Finzi Contini etc) which are terribly boring for kids. On the other hand, my class had a class library with more enjoyable stuff in it (Tolkien, Calvino, YA stuff).
- LoSboccacc 8y ago
  yeah I'm pretty sure I was twelve, I was in a summer camp in Ireland and it was the year the blur great escape album came out, we had some leftover chapter to read as summer vacation and I had to bring the book with me. inthe nineties curriculum changed at breakneck speed so anything is possible anyway.
watwut 8y ago
This is not first generation that dislikes mandatory readings. That did not changed. Primary purpose of school reading was not to be pleasure reading, it did not had to be and kids read more. Kids often used to start read out of boredom, you used to find fun and easy to read junk in sch situation. Now kids play something or watch videos in that boredom situation. Plus, now kids have more homework and organized activities. And easy to read fun junk is harder to find. But kids not liking what teacher assigned is not new.
- Pica_soO 8y ago
  >This is not first generation that dislikes mandatory readings. That did not changed. Primary purpose of school reading was not to be pleasure reading, it did not had to be and kids read more. This whole mindset of copy & paste information into new citizen is nightmarish and has bred so much resentment/outright resistance it should be persecuted for destroying a young persons motivation and interest in new things. Youtube and others are laying this idea, that knowledge has to be uninteresting and/or boring to ashes- series like extraHistory, smarterEveryDay, etc. show what is possible and how bad things actually are and where. If someone must force his grownup tastes down upon a not grown up audience, and overrides rejection /disinterest with force - destroying one of the most vital things a new citizen has to bring to this society (intrinsic will to learn / yearning for discovery) the educator should be fired and banned from his / her profession.
  - watwut 8y ago
    You are aware that learning is not done just for pleasure purpose? The purpose is not always to make you like what you read. And that people unable to do "not fun" things or unable to deal with mild dislike of something are not the most vital parts of society. They are too fragile. I am not bashing young people in general here. Most are not like that, even if they read less. Also wtf it is with people that first reaction on anything is threat of firing. It seems like people can't discuss even curriculum without that.

hrktb 8y ago

> war on screen So, is it like the war on drug and war on terrorism ? Also I remember when I was a kid, people were over my back for reading too much books, as I was supposed to “go outside”, “play with the other kids”, “make things with my hand”. I won’t use the eternal ‘I ended up fine’ argument, but in any day and age we’re grindingly pushing kids toward stuff they don’t care about for no decent reason. As a general rule you shouldn’t be at war against stuff your kids are into.

genidoi 8y ago
Everything in moderation. Such as stopping your 11 y/o kid from playing runescape at 2am when they should be sleeping. Source: Me.
- wild_preference 8y ago
  15 years ago I was setting my alarm for 2am to sneak some before-school Runescape! The growing discussion thee days on the long-term effects of sleep deprivation, especially in youth, is a bit scary. :)
  - pnutjam 8y ago
    Pre-runescape here, 2am alarm was for skinimax.
- hrktb 8y ago
  Yes ! Stopping kids from staying up at night is the funniest game though. The length each party is willing to go to one-up the each other is where you truely get to know each other.
  - PebblesRox 8y ago
    When my husband was a kid, he kept a broken console on hand so that when his dad caught him gaming in bed, he could turn over the broken one and keep playing the real one when his dad left.
- 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

Waterluvian 8y ago

I just don't get why screens are a bad thing. Find balance. Don't demonize the screens. Don't underbalance screen time. We hope all these kids will be successful enough that screens become a core of their careers.

bodas 8y ago
Because childhood is a rare time in one's life where you have the freedom to enjoy the outside, and not have to sit in front of a screen. FWIW I don't think books are a good use of time either.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  Not really. You have the freedom to enjoy the outside even as an adult; all it takes is to go out. Go hiking. Play a sport. Get together with some friends. I guess childhood is a rare time where you have the freedom to loiter, but I guess this isn't really true anymore in the Western world, as it's a sure way to get your parents in trouble with social services, thanks to overzealous neighbours.
- SirensOfTitan 8y ago
  > Because childhood is a rare time in one's life where you have the freedom to enjoy the outside I spend plenty of time outside as an adult. How exactly do adults lose their freedom to enjoy the outside?
- Nullabillity 8y ago
  > freedom to enjoy the outside The beatings will continue until morale improves.
aklemm 8y ago
If they demonstrably damage one's ability to thrive in the world, then we should demonize them. If.

Moodles 8y ago

Reminds me of this xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1227/ https://xkcd.com/1227/

itronitron 8y ago
>> they carry it off, to be sulkily read as they travel (1886)

jccalhoun 8y ago

As a current educator -- although I teach college -- I laugh at the war on screens. When I was a kid I was told more than once to put down a book and go outside. I guess my parents were waging a war on books.

brightball 8y ago

At our house we have a system where our kids can earn “30 minute slips” that they can save to use for screen time. Been working freat