Think of it this way: would you teach your kids Esperanto instead of the native tongue in your country?
Perhaps without realising it, the question you're asking is, "Should I teach my kids the thing that will help them in society as it exists or should I teach them a potentially superior but less applicable alternative?"
The tech crowd sometimes misses the network effects of common solutions that might not be "the best" (and I'm really really skeptical that Dvorak is better)
I guess the difference between _how_ to write something compared to _what_ to write.
If people writing qwerty couldn't understand people who wrote dvorak, I would understand your argument, but languages are so much more different than a keyboard layout.
But in the end, both keyboard layouts end up being able to write exactly the same words, the only difference is the speed (as I understand, only once tried using dvorak so I don't really know)
I see what you're saying but I think you're taking my point too literally.
QWERTY is the default layout (in English speaking countries and as QWERTY was mentioned, I assume OP is in an English speaking country). QWERTY is on the computers in schools, on the computers available to buy in stores, on the computers in offices.
Teaching kids Dvorak is putting them at a disadvantage in life, just as teaching them Esperato, Inrterlingua, Lojban, or similar artificial languages instead of English might seem intellectually appealing but would set them up for a life of difficulty.
I see what you are saying too but I don't think speaking/understanding two different languages are the same as using two different keyboard layouts.
If I never seen a qwerty keyboard before and only used dvorak, I could probably type with it, it would only be a bit slower than usual. Same when I see someone with a dvorak keyboard. Although the layout is very different, I could still use it, but it slows me down a lot.
However, if someone only speaks/understands Esperanto meets someone who only speaks English, it will be way harder for them to understand each other, harder than trying to understand another keyboard layout.
I'm not suggesting that they're the same. Instead, I'm offering an example of another thing you could do in your child's education that might seem good at the time but would actually give them a disadvantage.
I get that using a Dvorak keyboard isn't a total barrier to communication but it is non-standard in our society and so possible advantages would be outweighed by the children having to adjust when they encounter the world at large.
The analogy isn't that a qwerty typist can't understand a dvorak typist, but that when our society uses a certain standard, using something else that's only marginally better might be more trouble than it's worth. Would you want your kid to be unable to use the keyboards at school, or the library, or what comes stock on laptops, or (directly addressing OP) the workplace? Sure, many jobs require computer use, but unless it's an office, they're likely shared computers.
Comments
Think of it this way: would you teach your kids Esperanto instead of the native tongue in your country?
Perhaps without realising it, the question you're asking is, "Should I teach my kids the thing that will help them in society as it exists or should I teach them a potentially superior but less applicable alternative?"
Thanks for putting it so eloquently
The tech crowd sometimes misses the network effects of common solutions that might not be "the best" (and I'm really really skeptical that Dvorak is better)
I guess the difference between _how_ to write something compared to _what_ to write.
If people writing qwerty couldn't understand people who wrote dvorak, I would understand your argument, but languages are so much more different than a keyboard layout.
But in the end, both keyboard layouts end up being able to write exactly the same words, the only difference is the speed (as I understand, only once tried using dvorak so I don't really know)
I see what you're saying but I think you're taking my point too literally.
QWERTY is the default layout (in English speaking countries and as QWERTY was mentioned, I assume OP is in an English speaking country). QWERTY is on the computers in schools, on the computers available to buy in stores, on the computers in offices.
Teaching kids Dvorak is putting them at a disadvantage in life, just as teaching them Esperato, Inrterlingua, Lojban, or similar artificial languages instead of English might seem intellectually appealing but would set them up for a life of difficulty.
I see what you are saying too but I don't think speaking/understanding two different languages are the same as using two different keyboard layouts.
If I never seen a qwerty keyboard before and only used dvorak, I could probably type with it, it would only be a bit slower than usual. Same when I see someone with a dvorak keyboard. Although the layout is very different, I could still use it, but it slows me down a lot.
However, if someone only speaks/understands Esperanto meets someone who only speaks English, it will be way harder for them to understand each other, harder than trying to understand another keyboard layout.
I'm not suggesting that they're the same. Instead, I'm offering an example of another thing you could do in your child's education that might seem good at the time but would actually give them a disadvantage.
I get that using a Dvorak keyboard isn't a total barrier to communication but it is non-standard in our society and so possible advantages would be outweighed by the children having to adjust when they encounter the world at large.
And ergonomics.
The analogy isn't that a qwerty typist can't understand a dvorak typist, but that when our society uses a certain standard, using something else that's only marginally better might be more trouble than it's worth. Would you want your kid to be unable to use the keyboards at school, or the library, or what comes stock on laptops, or (directly addressing OP) the workplace? Sure, many jobs require computer use, but unless it's an office, they're likely shared computers.
Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/927/