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Their very first argument is "But we also know that kids love playing games, interacting with real objects, and making things." Childhood should be about goofi

Their very first argument is "But we also know that kids love playing games, interacting with real objects, and making things." Childhood should be about goofing off on tricycles, playing tag, and creating awesome Lego towers from a big box of blocks. I love programming now, but if I had started coding as young as the children in the video, I don't know if I'd be as jazzed about it as an adult. Maybe the kids who play with these programmer-esque type of toys can potentially write better code when they're adults, but is it possible that the kids playing outside, reading the Magic Treehouse, or drawing pictures will be more well rounded, more cooperative, and overall better colleagues?

pokpokpok 13y ago
children have no lack of free time, and if this is just another activity they enjoy, it will give them access to learning important skills for their future
cheez 13y ago
Chances are that kids learn how to be social from their parents. My kids read (past and present tense) fantasy stories, program NXT, play lots of sports, explore the backyard alone or with each other and are unfortunately fairly independent, just like me. I do my best to raise them to be social and to make close friendships. They are quite the social butterflies but as their main influence, they copy a lot of my habits. As I had been on my own since my late teens, this meant that I've learned not to depend on others and surprise, they copied me. Maybe these personality traits are correlated with programming robots but I don't think programming robots causes it. It's more what they are taught at home.
deelowe 13y ago
So... Are you arguing that children shouldn't be allowed to program?
saraid216 13y ago
> if I had started coding as young as the children in the video, I don't know if I'd be as jazzed about it as an adult. I don't see why this is a bad thing.
dragonwriter 13y ago
> Childhood should be about goofing off on tricycles, playing tag, and creating awesome Lego towers from a big box of blocks. I love programming now, but if I had started coding as young as the children in the video, I don't know if I'd be as jazzed about it as an adult. I spent my childhood doing all those things -- including programming from a fairly early age. I'm still jazzed about it as an adult. In fact, moreso than lots of people I know who do it professionally, but got into it later.
ryanhuff 13y ago
My son, who is 9, has been asking me to teach him how to mod Minecraft. He is obsessed with the game, which makes it a great incentive to learn to code. I am setting up a dev environment this week to do simple Forge mods.

pokpokpok 13y ago

children have no lack of free time, and if this is just another activity they enjoy, it will give them access to learning important skills for their future

cheez 13y ago

Chances are that kids learn how to be social from their parents. My kids read (past and present tense) fantasy stories, program NXT, play lots of sports, explore the backyard alone or with each other and are unfortunately fairly independent, just like me. I do my best to raise them to be social and to make close friendships. They are quite the social butterflies but as their main influence, they copy a lot of my habits. As I had been on my own since my late teens, this meant that I've learned not to depend on others and surprise, they copied me. Maybe these personality traits are correlated with programming robots but I don't think programming robots causes it. It's more what they are taught at home.

deelowe 13y ago

So... Are you arguing that children shouldn't be allowed to program?

saraid216 13y ago

> if I had started coding as young as the children in the video, I don't know if I'd be as jazzed about it as an adult. I don't see why this is a bad thing.

dragonwriter 13y ago

> Childhood should be about goofing off on tricycles, playing tag, and creating awesome Lego towers from a big box of blocks. I love programming now, but if I had started coding as young as the children in the video, I don't know if I'd be as jazzed about it as an adult. I spent my childhood doing all those things -- including programming from a fairly early age. I'm still jazzed about it as an adult. In fact, moreso than lots of people I know who do it professionally, but got into it later.

ryanhuff 13y ago

My son, who is 9, has been asking me to teach him how to mod Minecraft. He is obsessed with the game, which makes it a great incentive to learn to code. I am setting up a dev environment this week to do simple Forge mods.