Oh Dear Need To Start Computer Classes

Oh no, someone’s kid knows how to boot up a PC and use a mouse at the age of two. Vanessa is already three. It seems we are a little behind time. But she’s quite the expert using Nokia touchscreen smart phones, navigating to the music player, and listening to her favourite “Nobody, nobody but you” song. Quite impressive, I think. I’m not clear what exactly “running software” means, but it does sound like a significant achievement. Or, maybe it just means to launch Internet Explorer.

Then… nine programming languages at age seven? Hmm.

Let me see. I am proficient in C and Perl. I used to be proficient in a variety of machine/assembler languages, BASIC, and Pascal. I can also get by with PHP and Java. Oh dear, seven only. Okay, in school, I had to do COBOL, Lisp, Prolog, LOGO, and goodness knows how many more. Then I dabbled with C++, Ruby, Python, REXX, etc.

Nine programming languages at age seven seems a little too impressive.

Vanessa’s already watching Barney and Sesame Street on the PC. She only knows how to watch though. I have to fight with her over the keyboard and mouse though, because she doesn’t know what to do with them and inevitably switches webpages, shuts down the browser, to activates some other program.

Ian… well, still too young. He can pay attention to the TV. But he likes to muck up the hubstation and DVD player, so I imagine he’ll mess up the keyboard and mouse just like Vanessa.

At the rate technology evolves, maybe I’ll find myself a bit “sua ku” when Vanessa and Ian grows up. Then, I’ll be mucking up the controls of something and they’ll be screaming… “Papa, don’t touch anything.”

Oh, perhaps not. By then, technology ought to be so advanced and idiot-proof. They’ll just work.