Image by Robert Thomson via Flickr
There is a very public and often vicious debate about when it is appropriate to introduce your kids to computers. On both sides of the debate there are very good arguments.
One the one side, people say that introducing your kids to computers is necessary when we live in such an computer based world. It becomes imperative that children learn to type and research using the computer at a young age as they will be using it for the rest of their lives. Parents debating that computers need to be introduced to children at a young age also point out that computers are used in school for nearly everything. Very few schools teach penmanship anymore in favor of computer classes. Teachers are now requesting typed work over written work in higher numbers. Researching for homework and even handing in homework is often done over the computer. They claim that if you are not introducing a computer to your children at a young age then the children will be begin to fall behind. They also claim that many computer programs are not only helpful to familiarizing your children with computers but that the programs are educational.
Parents who do not advocate introducing their chidlren to computers at such a young age also make good points. They claim that use of the computer will teach their children to depend on programs like spellcheck and calculators to perform functions that your child should be able to complete on their own. Parents say that the computer should be used as a research tool to help their children rather than the children relying on the computer to completehomework. Parents also claim that when children are made to feel comfortable around the computer at a young age they are more likely to wander to sites that can be detrimental and even harmless because they are too young to understand. They make the point that children should know how to use the computer to do work but that their work should be supervised and limited.
