Fyi to anyone who reads your comment

> because you can’t get your childhood back

It seems to imply that the rest of childhood is lost because of git. You may want to correct or clarify your comment.

Btw, childhood is a lot about throwaway exploring many things where we don't have to invent a purpose or utility for every single thing. It's all about spare time and trying things out with no strings attached. It doesn't matter if in some of their spare time they watch TV together, or go to movies together, or build a robot together, or code together. I think you're getting downvoted not because whether the utility is right or wrong, but because utility doesn't need to matter.

I downvoted this comment as I disagree strongly with that statement:

> git has absolutely no meaning for a child, it's a professional tool used for work

It's not just a professional tool for work. It's a version control system to version whatever you might think needs versioning. What's this attitude that software engineering tools and skills are just valuable for work?

> you don't teach children how to operate a chainsaw, do you?

A chainsaw is very dangerous to the kid. My dad certainly told me how to use a hammer, handsaw and many other tools. We built a lot of things together like wooden remote controlled airplanes. It was certainly neither to train me to become a woodworker or aerospace engineer. And I will certainly build computer games with my kid some day which will involve git (or its future equivalent) as one of the first lessons.

could you please explain to me why a 5-12 year old child needs "a version control system to version whatever you might think needs versioning"?

like do you really think children are bothered with not being able to version-control files? is this an issue a lot of children are having?

> software engineering tools and skills are just valuable for work?

yes, work is still work, it doesn't matter if you're doing work as a fun hobby or as a job

> I will certainly build computer games with my kid some day which will involve git

yeah, why not also teach them law and performing a surgery? they'll have a great career potential, useful skills, much better than the other children!

> like do you really think children are bothered with not being able to version-control files?

I've used lots of "...-1.zip" files to preserve my files when learning coding for fun, so yes, someone showing me git (if it existed at the time) would help. It took me a few extra years to discover CVS/SVN. (the system itself was exciting)

> yeah, why not also teach them law and performing a surgery?

There are kids actually interested in law and finding the concept fun. You may be also shocked that I was really into accounting my allowance and spending in a double entry system. Surgery would be hard for practical/legal reasons, but I know two really young kids, one obsessed with the idea of performing medical procedures, the other with being a paramedic. (and not in a silly "I wanna grow up to be a doctor", but rather "I've found a first aid course for kids I want to do")

What I'm trying to say is, don't assume kids are pushed / forced to do things like that. Some of them really enjoy things adults find hard / boring / too work related.

I agree with everything viraptor said in the sibling comment and just wanna add:

> yes, work is still work, it doesn't matter if you're doing work as a fun hobby or as a job

No it's not work. You do work to get paid if you like a particular task or not. You do your hobby for yourself because you enjoy doing it and you just stop if you want to. I certainly won't force my kids to do that. I will try to get them into the subject with patience and let it go if they gave it a fair shot and don't like it. It matters a great deal if you do something for work or fun.

> like do you really think children are bothered with not being able to version-control files? is this an issue a lot of children are having?

Of course, everyone wants an "undo" button and lower consequences for experimentation. I really wanted one from the very first programs I wrote when I was 9 years old and don't have one. I had no intention of making a career of it and had no one to share programs with. Completely irrelevant.

I downvoted you too.

First of all, teaching someone git isn't necessarily job training. We don't have the broader context. Maybe the child initiated it because they were interested in what their parents are spending their time on.

Secondly, teaching a child how to use git doesn't mean the child isn't learning other things too.

Thirdly, I learned version control (SVN, before git existed) as a child too. Not as young as primary school, but I learned it on my own because I was interested in it. It wasn't done in the context of job training.

Fourthly, your comparison with a chain saw is just plain vacuous. Git won't kill or maim you. Holy hell buddy.

So at least in my case, your speculation about the reasons for downvotes is wrong. And also, stop whining about downvotes. :)

It makes sense if the kid’s already into programming, and is starting to run up against the sorts of problems a VCS is designed to solve like “oh no it was kinda working and my attempts to make it work better broke it and I closed the editor so I can’t undo my way back out of this”.

A kid in first grade is not very likely to be having these kinds of problems, but a site like this full of professional programmers is certainly where you’re most likely to find parents whose kids are having these problems because they’ve been genuinely interested in learning what Mom and/or Dad do all day, and have been taught some of it.

Until a couple years ago, I didn't use Git at work (it was SVN at work). However, I used it all the time for personal projects.

Come to think of it, SVN was the same way; I used it for personal projects while using CVS at work.

Also, as an aside, my dad taught me how to use a chainsaw, including mixing the fuel for the two-stroke engine when I was 12. As an electrical engineer, he certainly didn't use a chainsaw at work.

> you don't teach children how to operate a chainsaw, do you?

I didn't get to use a chainsaw as a kid, but I did get to use a table saw and a hand-held circular saw when there were projects to use them for.

Why not? I got my first programming manual (for C64 Basic, of course) when I was 7, read Stroustrup at 14, and wrote x86 assembly as 16. I started working with CVS only at university, and wished that I'd known about it years before.

But thank you for gratuitously denigrating my childhood.

you're a tiny, tiny minority

the overwhelming majority of the children don't need C64 Basic at 7, Stroustrup at 14 and x86 assembly at 16

Everyone is part of some tiny, tiny minority. It's the best thing about us. It doesn't matter if it's coding, aikido, collecting sea shells, or keeping ferrets.

Denouncing one such tiny minority just because you don't see the value in it makes you sound very closed-minded and bigoted.

How can you assume that the kid that got shown `git`, is not part of that minority? I'd guess it very likely is.

> a concept no 5-12 year old needs

That's a huge assumption here. At the base of what a human needs are the physiological needs. Do humans need art? Fun? Maths? Git? Where do you draw the line?

i draw the line when parents train children skills, which are only useful in context of performing work

That's not the only context. I would likely appreciate git at 12yo. I definitely enjoyed programming already and I believe that was the time I learned more about maths to code some music visualiser plugins and was sending fun examples back and forth with a friend. Git would've been useful.

Then a lot of people don't need to learn maths beyond addition and multiplication.

I prefer the opposite interpretation though: anything can become a hobby or puzzle. That puts nearly everything on the "ok" side of your line.

Would you have the same objection if the guy were teaching his kid how to use a screwdriver?

You don’t use git when you’re working on hobby programming projects?

Isn't wanting to teach your kids the family trade a rather ancient tradition?

Is there any particular reason behind saying that that's bad?

You said “shouldn’t” because you “can’t get childhood back” so you actually didn’t really imply it, you just stated it outright.

It’s also a terrible take! “Don’t teach kids interesting and complex things, it might be related to something someone does for a living!”