Back in the the last century children were not allowed to read except for studies. If they were caught reading during the day they were told to stop to “do something more useful”.
Nowadays parents and teachers are fighting hard to get children read books, prohibiting them at the same time to use computer because “it is a waste of time”.
Meanwhile great experts are pointing out that we are in a moment of acceleration of knowledge. Knowledge is for first time in the history of humanity widely accessible at no cost.
What about giving to children a tablet and let them use it to study at no cost with all knowledge up to date at their fingers tips, wonderful free apps, worldwide collaborative learning aprenticeship? Look at Sugata Mitra experience and remember that it tooks four centuries to the “book” (paper publishing) to be used properly by 80% of the population.
How long will it take to understand the use of a “computer” (maybe we must change this name) and get the most of it?
PS: Children can still continue to learn how to write with a pencil but like Chinese or Japanese people do caligraphy, like a spiritual exercise.
2 Comments
Add Yours →Excellent post! I didn’t know that in the past children were not allowed to read! Sugata Mitra was at the Nice conference but I couldn’t see him, what a shame!
??Thx. Coming from agricultural society, reading was seen as a waste of time, except if it was mandatory to study. Eager readers were considered as dreamers, not very useful members of the community. It is a shame to see same arguments flourishing about the use of computer