President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Counterpoint. If you're proficient in computers in the 1980s, you're unique and in line to become very wealthy very quickly.

 

This is where I land on this, and why I spend time at my third place. I enjoy a few hours at home by myself, but as a single person, I can't go without social interaction for long periods of time. It's also why I'm in favor of the hybrid work model. I like my coworkers and like going to the office but I also like those two remote days. So I guess I respond the cues correctly.

 

Counterpoint: Phones and those shitty Chromebooks have nothing to do with that.

Counterpoint 2: How much high-level Excel do you think these kids are doing?

This isn't a call for kids to be Luddites.

 

I said Excel, but in 2035, it's going to be more important that a kid knows how to connect a computer to the internet, troubleshoot a printer, configure display settings, update drivers, type, effectively search on the internet, prompt AI ... than it is to fill out a ditto sheet.

 

What schools need to do more than ever is to teach kids to be critical thinkers: how to identify bias in the information that is now so readily available and how to judge what information works best to address the problems they’re facing.

Of course that type of teaching doesn’t help anyone score well on a standardized test and would probably be considered too woke of a lesson plan for today’s schools.

 

Another great snippet from that piece. Again, not trying to be that old guy, but that perfectly captures my adolescence. Sure, we had Nintendos and such, but you'd meet up with friends and play at your house, not online with a headset alone in your room. Or you'd just leave the house in the morning and go on adventures and come back in time for dinner. Something is to be said for the loss of that.

 

Yeah. We used to play baseball all day long in the summer when we were kids.

 

Actually, there's a growing trend - at least around here - of confiscating phones at the start of the school day. Or requiring they be quarantined to a special bag that only the teachers can unlock.

That said, I don't know how banning phones in schools fixes the chronic social isolation many people are now voluntarily choosing.

 

Having a daughter on a dance team after school costs an ass load of money that isn’t always readily available. Stuff like this reinforces to me that it is worth it. Those girls are the core of her social group, even the ones a bit older or younger. Sure they have their group text but they’re also spending time together in reality, and not just at the studio either.

If we want to do something to improve kids lives, let’s subsidize extracurricular stuff so more of them have access to opportunities for mingling. It could be band or chess club or whatever really. The Boys & Girls Club could be a huge opportunity but those seem to have faded out. What a shame.

 

If I was still in the house at noon in the summer, my mother opened the screen door and said, "Go outside. I don't care what you do but go outside. You're not sitting around and watching TV all day."