[OT] HyperCard and the Interactive Web

[Bob Sneidar]

My oinion is that at 18, all kids should be put through some kind of boot camp like training, just so that they can learn how to do exactly what they are told, no more, no less, in spite of what everyone else around them does. That would go a LONG way towards their future education in anything. I am still met with unbelief when I tell people that my first days in boot camp involved obeying simple orders like left face, and that more than half the squad got it wrong almost every time! Once one person does it wrong, others see them doing something other than what they themselves did, and they start second guessing themselves. Not wanting to be "different" they change their minds even though they know it to be the wrong thing! 

Bob


On Feb 26, 2012, at 12:15 AM, Richmond wrote:

> Speaking as a reactionary 50 year old; I think:
> 
> 1. No child under the age of 14 should be allowed any mathematical crutch apart from a slide-rule.
> 
>  I find, in my "EFL" school, that kids find sliderules rather interesting, and they are able to SEE how numbers
>  work; something one cannot do with a pocket calculator.
> 
> 2. At 14 children should all be given something like a Pentium 2 with FreeDOS and taught
>    how to navigate themselves around a system with no GUI.
> 
> 3. At 14 children should be given a course in something like BASIC or LISP on that GUI-less computer.
> 
> 3.1. Probably preceded by a few weeks "doing programming" on paper, and messing around with buttons in cups.
> 
> 4. At 17-18 children should all be given a PC with an operating system with a WIMP-GUI on it after
>    they have passed a test to demonstrate their familiarity with a Terminal emulator.
> 
> It is far more IMPORTANT that kids learn to think logically and coherently than possess fancy electronic
> equipment.