Reuters has published an article about The Access 2 Technology Project, a program that for teenage "misfits." In one such class, one-third of previously trouble-making kids discovered they were good at computers "once they started touching parts and reconstituting old Apple Macintoshes."
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Bought my niece -- then a 13-year-old with a 1.0 GPA and fresh out of juvie -- a Performa 5215/160 a couple years ago.
After a while, her GPA went from 1.0 to 4.0 (graduated junior high as Class Valedictorian), and she no longer hangs with her criminally-minded friends.
Alas, her GPA went to 2.0 first semester of high school ... so I told her if she got a 3.5 I'd buy her an iMac (actually, I'd give her mine, and buy myself one of the new G4s, or the "TiBook" ... not sure who gets her 5215 yet).
Guess who has begun doing better in school again?
Recently started on my younger nephews (7 and 9) with my original Performa 600 ... got them hooked on Bubble Trouble.
So. Bottom line: The Access Technology program is a good example of what I call "stealth learning." That's where what you're doing is fun, and you don't notice you're learning stuff until it's too late ... and I say, "Keep at it!"
--gdw
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Uhm, no
Not a good idea to give teenagers the impression that Macs are all reeealy old and reeeealy slow with a crappy un-modern OS (7.5 prolly on "old" Macs which won't exactly instil confidence in the platform).
Oh well, they prolly got their parents to get em some cheapy PeeCee clone box with Windoze ME that they think is THE sh*t.