Jeni's Musings

Hi Jeni,

We just put our children into their first “real”school. One of the things I’ve been obsessing about, as someone who has been programming computers since I was 13, is on how much computer time to give my 4-year olds. Obviously, computers, and programming are important to me. But I’ve discovered that what I actually value in education is the ability to manage abstract thought - learning to be able to take a specific problem, and think about a general solution which addresses the specific problem, while not limiting absolutely the ability for the same solution to address a different, and perhaps unrelated problem.

Computers can be used to do that, but so can Lego, a blank page and a pencil, or perhaps one day a “Flytop” pen? The key seems (to me at least) in educating to stimulate a fertile mind, and providing the support to allow children to make mistakes when doing that without too much pain… whatever the technology.

More and more I’ve been realizing also that a good social group (children who mostly like each other, and are taught to respect each other) is very important in this kind of development. I’d like to think that my children will listen to me because I’m their dad, but, well, the truth is that when faced with listening to me, or listening to their peers… I’m sure you know the answer here ;) Now they’re at school from 8am -> 2pm every day, they see as much of their peers as they see of me.