It's not about the history but the basics of computing. The boards can have multicore superscalar high-performance RISC-V CPUs, for all I care. From there you c

It's not about the history but the basics of computing. The boards can have multicore superscalar high-performance RISC-V CPUs, for all I care. From there you can go and develop a detailed understanding of more advanced devices and systems, if you choose to. I'm not against computers in school. They can be convenient and practical tools. Heck, I want computers in school, just not for just having computers in school. Demanding every child in 7th grade to buy an iPad for math courses, so they can write on them instead of on paper, will not teach them about computers. They use them only as tools for the convenience (actually, they aren't more convenient; paper is extremely convenient for math), and the school has the possibility to say 'hey look, we are modern and digital!'. That is snake oil. The kids won't learn a thing about the excessively expensive status symbol devices they are forced to buy, especially not with Apple products of all. This is alienating them from what computers are; universal machines. I don't have in my mind children that 'balk like cavemen at modern computers'. I think of children that can get excited about advanced hardware and systems, and see all the possibilities. They'd ask for the battery run time, for the computing capacity, for the I/O abilities, or the instruction set, etc. And they'd want to code the machine to do things they deem useful. That curiosity is not just not nourished, it is killed how it is done now. Driving school has different goals. Cars are products that are dangerous when their operator is not trained. So the driving school is there to train people to operate these machines safely. General public school has the goal to prepare children with general knowledge, a basis to build on, so they can be informed citizens. Democracies crucially depend on that.