"She let me take the computer home." – How I got started in computers. hnsl.mn/KPdbfO
— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) May 29, 2012
Scott’s post reminded me of a story that was critical to my computer education as well.
The year would have been 1986 and I was in 5th grade (same age as Scott!). We had moved from Southern California to New York City and I was attending PS 158. New York schools have improved tremendously since then and although we lived in a good neighborhood, the school was still not very good.
Towards the end of the semester I was missing school quite a bit. I was not learning at a pace that I could stay engaged and with around 33 kids per class and only one teacher, there was not a lot they could do for me.
One day my parents and I were called in to discuss the situation. I remember them taking it quite seriously, because I was bumping up against the limit to be considered delinquent and that would be a problem for everyone.
The school had just recently installed a computer lab and staffed it with a very young teacher who didn’t really know that much about them.
Details of the meeting are hazy, but someone suggested that I spend my school day in the lab rather than in the regular classroom. And that’s how I finished out the year.