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[Tawa]

This is why I'm glad we only got ours in ninth grade.

It was the first touchscreen only device I'd ever had, barring maybe a poke at somebody else's tablet once or twice.

[BlackFlyme]

It's a bit much when the teachers are acting like computers are a replacement for actual reading and writing.

They've actually been using that as an excuse to not teach my youngest sister not to read or write, despite how far she's fallen behind her peers, because "computers will be able to do that for her soon".

[RedKing]

From what I can tell in my daughter's elementary school computer lab for afterschool, it's mostly edutainment games and multiplayer Minecraft.

[SalmonGod]

I actually think computers are amazing learning tools, and you don't need to know how to read to use one.

[Tawa]

Wait, teachers endorse that shit now, too?

We're at a forked path, guys.

1: Organize an "Occupy Wall Street"-esque movement at Silicon Valley
2: Use Dwarf Fortress as a teaching tool for social studies, language study, biology, economics, and math

The choice is obvious.

[SalmonGod]

It's a bit much when the teachers are acting like computers are a replacement for actual reading and writing.

They've actually been using that as an excuse to not teach my youngest sister not to read or write, despite how far she's fallen behind her peers, because "computers will be able to do that for her soon".

WTF?  This doesn't make any sense.

On my end, my brother had Aspergers, which wasn't diagnosed until he was 10.  He received very little attention when he was little, because overworked parents and nobody else could figure him out.  He barely spoke until he got to somewhere around 7 or 8.  But he taught himself how to read almost completely through sporadic computer usage by age 4.  Nobody even knew he was literate until shortly after beginning school, his teacher called home with the news.  But he still failed miserably most of the way through school because nobody could figure out how to communicate with/motivate him.

Another story about how unpredictable child advancement is with basic skills at early ages:  My first kid didn't start walking until (IIRC) 15 months.  He just wasn't interested.  We did everything we could to motivate him.  Nothing worked.  Until we took him to a friend's house for babysitting, who has a daughter 3 months younger than him.  Her kid had been up on two feet for a couple months.  As soon as he saw her, he took off running like it was nothing.

[BlackFlyme]

They're advocating programs that read for her by saying words out loud. And programs that record what she says so that she doesn't have to type or write.

Though attempts to get her using these programs didn't get much farther than failed attempts at speech therapy because of how poorly my sister talks. The programs just can't tell what she's trying to say, and the teachers who are trying to teach her to talk properly are anything but nice or patient with her.

[Vector]

I'm not sure how I feel about New Kindergarten. I was among the last students of Old Kindergarten, but I don't know. Part of me sympathizes that young children should have easier lives, but the other part says you have to get them used to the stress at some point, might as well start immediately, and it's a disservice to do otherwise. Personally, I found my Kindergarten experience rather wasteful.

I think I'm younger than you, but I still had New Kindergarten. I didn't really mind it. On the other hand, I was doing algebra in kindergarten and could read at a high school level in first grade, so 9_9 I was not stressed in school for a pretty damn long time.

[MaximumZero]

From what I can tell in my daughter's elementary school computer lab for afterschool, it's mostly edutainment games and multiplayer Minecraft.

My daughter had a technology class every Friday last year. She was in kindergarten. She was also doing basic science, music, art, and honing social skills. She was specifically called out as being a leader and a good influence in the class, although she has issues learning at home due to boredom. Her mother sits her in front of the tv and leaves her to do whatever, and I probably push too hard.

This parenting shit is hard.

[Frumple]

... all I can say is that if you had dumped hours worth of homework on me... hell, before somewhere late in middle school, things probably would have been set on fire. Likely the homework, and possibly the textbooks. Maybe something more weighty if it kept up long enough. I definitely would have failed many, many classes. Was in the upper ranks, so to speak, of grades course wise, and have been consistently annihilating most tests since basically ever, but there is zero way my grades wouldn't have crashed and burned with that sort of work load. Hell, even with (much) less than that, homework in general has consistently been the biggest hit to my GPA.

Biggest problem with homework was that, well... most of it was busy work. Repetition has its place, but for most courses I didn't need much and motivating myself to do excess was pretty much impossible. It's just... well. It's pretty much the biggest problem with the public school system in the states, as is. People learn differently, and the system in place is pretty damn hostile to that. Woe fucking betide the poor bastard that isn't able to muddle through what's been cookie-cut this year

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'm not sure how I feel about New Kindergarten. I was among the last students of Old Kindergarten, but I don't know. Part of me sympathizes that young children should have easier lives, but the other part says you have to get them used to the stress at some point, might as well start immediately, and it's a disservice to do otherwise. Personally, I found my Kindergarten experience rather wasteful.

I think I'm younger than you, but I still had New Kindergarten. I didn't really mind it. On the other hand, I was doing algebra in kindergarten and could read at a high school level in first grade, so 9_9 I was not stressed in school for a pretty damn long time.

You're four years older than me. I'm afraid I'm also a bad metric. My long-term memory came online after I learned basic reading (my mother claims I started getting through sentences at age two, but I have no way to confirm this), and I was among the highest-rated members of my grade in Elementary school (such that they gave me the President's Award, though my family half-snubbed them on it due to a social dispute going on at the time, and I only found out about it a year ago). I only learned that school required effort in late Middle and early High school.

[Orange Wizard]

I was doing algebra in kindergarten

Yeesh. I feel woefully inadequate now.

Woe fucking betide the poor bastard that isn't able to muddle through what's been cookie-cut this year

Also this.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Don't worry about it, Vector is literally a genius.

[Vector]

You're four years older than me.

Don't worry about it, Vector is literally a genius.

Older. I meant older. oh my god. boy is that embarrassing

[Orange Wizard]

Don't worry about it, Vector is literally a genius.

Yes, but everyone keeps telling me that I'm literally a genius. And now I can't live up to an acceptable level of geniosity. (It's a word, damn it)