Semi-OT: Why Kids Can't use Computers

[Mike Kallies]

On 12/08/2013 5:12 PM, Paul King wrote:
...

> always exceptions, exactly as the author suggested. "There are one or two
> [students] in every cohort that can" replace motherboards and operating
> systems. "Cohort" means the entire grade in the whole school. I think that
> is a realistic ratio of literacy-to-ignorance in most schools in Canada
> also.
> 

I bet as a teacher, you've met a handful of students who are keenly
interested in math.  You point them to the relevant material and they
excel beyond it with minimal guidance.  They spend time looking up
deeper problems and hacking at them, showing you stuff that surprises
you and makes you go back to your own textbooks to fully understand.


The rest of the students need to be assigned exercises, and if not for
math being a prerequisite for whatever they need to do in life, they'd
never learn the subject.  Not that they dislike it.  They might find it
interesting, or fun, but when class is over or the assignment is done,
they're not speaking the language, innovating, applying or following
what's happening on math forums or in the community.

OTOH, probably everyone on this list was dumpster diving and ripping
apart old machines to build anything and everything we could.  We've
hacked, programmed, tweaked, read, had meetups and social functions,
travelled, done everything we could to learn more.


If a kid doesn't have the passion to continue on their own?  I don't
know what can be done about that, or if anything should be done.  They
learned some stuff, had fun, decided it didn't compel them, then moved on.




-Mike
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