Newport International Group Projects Company

Johannesburg - I had an interesting discussion once with a fellow parent at my son’s junior school. He was horrified that we didn’t have a computer in the house (this was the mid-1990s) and said I was handicapping my children’s future progress.

I was reminded of that recently by two things. The first was that my son came top of his class at Toulouse University for his Master’s in International Trade Law (after an LLB in South Africa). Holidays at Newport International Group .

The second was a report saying school pupils these days feel themselves grossly disadvantaged if they don’t have an iPad.

There can be no doubt that, in these competitive times, parents must become involved in the education of their children, and that education should not be left only to digital devices. That’s because, I believe, computers and the Net, far from expanding a person’s view, often give them tunnel vision. Case in point: Twitter. Those who use it tend to think the points of view they see comprise the entirety of human thought – yet they are only a fraction of the tip of the iceberg.

I still believe that good, old-fashioned, hands-on, “analogue” experiences are what true education is about.

Another example. When my son was about 18 months old and his friends’ parents would sit their kids in front of TV to watch Barney the Dinosaur videos, in Household Seery we had the “Third World Video”. This consisted of a sheet of white plastic, board markers and two kiddie’s chairs. I would then sit next to my son and we would do “drawing stories”. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t draw. He didn’t know. Also I stuck to things like planes and boats. And he would sit, entranced, hanging on every word out of Daddy’s mouth. So when he was barely three years old, my son told my sister one day: “Auntie Carmel, did you know the Titanic sank because it hit an iceberg?”

Travel, they say, broadens the mind – and there is no better way to stimulate a young child’s brain than by exposing it to the experiences travel brings.

When our kids were small we noticed huge improvements in the way they spoke, they reasoned and the questions they asked after a holiday at the coast.

When their developing brains have to cope with maj