Skip to main content

I don't know if it's still the case, but my impression is that public schools teach kids about computers either by teaching about programming, or about office software, but not really about system administration. I arguably have a bias, but I think system administration is a more relevant skill for most people than programming.
in reply to FoolishOwl

FoolishOwl
FoolishOwl
• •
I'm thinking of things like understanding what filesystems are, what user accounts and file permissions and so on are. These are things that come up for people frequently and confuse them, but aren't typically covered in an introductory programming course.
in reply to FoolishOwl

Nowhere Girl
Nowhere Girl
• •
Programming is a niche skill compared to knowing how and why computers work the way they do, which gives people much needed confidence in dealing with them, but it's been greatly deemphasized.
in reply to Nowhere Girl

FoolishOwl
FoolishOwl
• •
@gwynnion Part of the reason this popped into my head was that I'm at work, and I was explaining to co-workers that I'd piped the output of a command through 'less' and then searched for some text, so I'd see it in context. Neither of them were familiar with 'less'. This led to them talking about taking classes on Python.
@Nowhere Girl
in reply to FoolishOwl

silverwizard
silverwizard
•

@FoolishOwl Schools are afraid of IP addresses because that's Hacking. Schools refuse to teach how Thing Work because they're so afraid of hackers they refuse to teach.

Maybe I'm just bitter.

@FoolishOwl
in reply to silverwizard

Hypolite Petovan
Hypolite Petovan
• •
@silverwizard @FoolishOwl So far, my school has only been teaching my kid about Google products, not even about computers at all.
@FoolishOwl @silverwizard
in reply to silverwizard

Hypolite Petovan
Hypolite Petovan
• •
@silverwizard It's okay, I know exactly what you meant, the same of which can't be said about the Dislike button!
@silverwizard
⇧