Malmrose Gives A Five-Year-Old Geek Skills
This article first appeared last month in The GNOME Journal, but just in case you missed it, let me point you to it.
Cathy Malmrose is the CEO of Zareason, a computer shop in Berkeley, California that specializes in Linux-based hardware solutions. As many of us who use Linux know, there are still folks who think Linux is extremely complicated and not suited for everyday end users. (What does that even *mean*?) This article stomps all over that idea while also showing how amazing it is to empower kids - young girls specifically - and show them how technology works for them - not the other way around.
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April 2nd, 2010 at 2:57 pm
What a wonderful story! Just goes to show you how ENVIRONMENT makes all the difference! As with older folks, I think that many girls (including myself at a time) think that they do not have the aptitude for this type of thing because they are not hardwired for it. (The stereotype I had growing up was, girls are more creative and abstract, boys are more spatial and technical. I believe there was even a Harvard prof. that made this point…) The truth is, if you’re exposed to it, you have the potential to be interested in it. By making the kind of silly assumptions I had as a child, you block yourself off from that potential.
The same principle applies to both the young and the old. It is also very sad that a lot of people over 50 assume that learning about computers is beyond their capability. Get ‘em while they’re young, before they’re exposed to all this gender/age nonsense!