Kids need the real world
Ambitious parents nowadays want to send their kids to schools which use cutting-edge tools to educate and inform: these include computers, tablets and the Internet. You’d think leading lights of the tech world would want the same,
but you’d be wrong. The kids of Silicon Valley honchos from Google, Yahoo, Apple and eBay go to a school that has a strict “no PC” policy. There isn’t a computer in sight, and the kids don’t rush to Google search. Instead, teachers employ old-fashioned tools like paper, pens and even mud.
The logic, though perhaps a bit twisted, isn’t hard to understand. Small children have a lot of time ahead before using modern tech gadgets. Childhood should be a period of tactile learning and curiosity. The Internet is wonderful and there is an app today for just everything, but nothing beats the real thing. We don’t want to raise a generation of youngsters who live in the matrix, having known only what the digital world spews out. Instead, let them gets their hands dirty, literally and figuratively.
Silicon Valley mums and dads perhaps know this more than most. Some refuse to have a PC at home. Let the child gaze at wonderment at the blue sky and the green grass rather than seeing them only on a computer screen. In our mad race towards a wired future, where technology will “solve” all problems, we may be losing touch with the real world. It’s good to see some parents not buying into that.
Post new comment