Kindergarten in the Computer

Katherine Mangu-Ward:

The notion of online education for the Crayola set can strike adults as absurd. But for kids, even little ones, it's the idea ignoring computers all day that sounds crazy. After all, if you ask a third grader to list his favorite things, "doing stuff on the computer" will rank high, probably somewhere between race cars and string cheese.

What most people envision when they think of online education--a college or high school student sitting at a computer all day at home, perhaps with minimal parental guidance--isn't viable for the vast majority of families with young kids. Warehousing is a dirty word in education circles, but the truth is that it must be part of the package. Kids need somewhere to go during the day, preferably to hang out with other kids. They also need a bunch of adults there to keep them from killing one another and help them learn something.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 8, 2012 1:22 AM
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