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I Raised My Kids On the Command Line and They Love It (2012)

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Re: I Raised My Kids On the Command Line and They Love It (2012)

#11

Post by Tloewald »

I raised my kids on GUIs and they love it.

(I don't disagree that exposing kids to the command line is probably a valuable thing, but the idea that kids who learned to type a magic command to launch games on C64 have more useful knowledge than kids brought up on Mac/Windows is frankly stupid.)

Last night my five-year-old daughter complained her iPad was out of battery so I gave her my Nexus 7 and she had no problems using it (except for the relatively poorer quality of the apps). Then I gave her my Kindle Fire and she had no problem using that. (No, she can't read beyond numbers and sounding out words slowly.)

It's sad how because my daughter has been brought up on GUIs she can't run a computer from the command-line. No, wait, it isn't.

Re: I Raised My Kids On the Command Line and They Love It (2012)

#12

Post by JetSetWilly »

I've heard of being raised on the bread line, or the poverty line, but the command line? That's real deprivation. Imagine how excited they will be when they learn about hot water and inside toilets.

More seriously, what can a 2-5 year old do on the command line that would interest them? I'm genuinely curious.

Re: I Raised My Kids On the Command Line and They Love It (2012)

#13

Post by RougeFemme »

I just viewed it as a story of a self-described hacker sharing his love of computers with his kids. And it reminded me of how I first resisted the replacement of the command line with a GUI (Windows ?3.1? - yes, I'm rather "mature") at work because I didn't want to lose that sense of control and flexibility.

Re: I Raised My Kids On the Command Line and They Love It (2012)

#15

Post by brodney »

Tloewald wrote: post #11

I raised my kids on GUIs and they love it. (I don't disagree that exposing kids to the command line is probably a valuable thing, but the idea that kids who learned to type a magic command to launch games on C64 have more useful knowledge than kids brought up on Mac/Windows is frankly stupid.) Last night my five-year-old daughter complained her iPad was out of battery so I gave her my Nexus 7 and she had no problems…

>the idea that kids who learned to type a magic command to launch games on C64 have more useful knowledge than kids brought up on Mac/Windows is frankly stupid.

>children that used Commodores or TRS-80s or DOS knew a lot more about how their computers worked, on average, than those of the same age that use Windows or MacOS

He said they know more about how their computer works, not that they have more useful knowledge. Would you disagree?

Re: I Raised My Kids On the Command Line and They Love It (2012)

#16

Post by Ziomislaw »

Tloewald wrote: post #11

I raised my kids on GUIs and they love it. (I don't disagree that exposing kids to the command line is probably a valuable thing, but the idea that kids who learned to type a magic command to launch games on C64 have more useful knowledge than kids brought up on Mac/Windows is frankly stupid.) Last night my five-year-old daughter complained her iPad was out of battery so I gave her my Nexus 7 and she had no problems…

congrats, you shielded them from knowledge and managed to kill their curiosity.

Re: I Raised My Kids On the Command Line and They Love It (2012)

#18

Post by byroot »

JetSetWilly wrote: post #12

I've heard of being raised on the bread line, or the poverty line, but the command line? That's real deprivation. Imagine how excited they will be when they learn about hot water and inside toilets. More seriously, what can a 2-5 year old do on the command line that would interest them? I'm genuinely curious.

As much seriously, how a 2-5 year old can use the command line beyond mimicking what dad shown ?

I mean if you can't read nor write how can you __learn__ command line ?

Re: I Raised My Kids On the Command Line and They Love It (2012)

#19

Post by bluedino »

byroot wrote: post #18
JetSetWilly wrote: post #12

I've heard of being raised on the bread line, or the poverty line, but the command line? That's real deprivation. Imagine how excited they will be when they learn about hot water and inside toilets. More seriously, what can a 2-5 year old do on the command line that would interest them? I'm genuinely curious.

As much seriously, how a 2-5 year old can use the command line beyond mimicking what dad shown ? I mean if you can't read nor write how can you __learn__ command line ?

Most 3 year olds can write their name (at some degree) and recognize quite a few words.

Re: I Raised My Kids On the Command Line and They Love It (2012)

#20

Post by billybob255 »

Ziomislaw wrote: post #16
Tloewald wrote: post #11

I raised my kids on GUIs and they love it. (I don't disagree that exposing kids to the command line is probably a valuable thing, but the idea that kids who learned to type a magic command to launch games on C64 have more useful knowledge than kids brought up on Mac/Windows is frankly stupid.) Last night my five-year-old daughter complained her iPad was out of battery so I gave her my Nexus 7 and she had no problems…

congrats, you shielded them from knowledge and managed to kill their curiosity.

This is just an absurd statement to make. Someone didn't specifically raise their kid to use a CLI and they killed their curiosity?
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