Title is probably sensationalist. More likely that stretched IT departments at schools implement one-size-fits-all content blockers for websites and this particular site is caught up in a blocked category. I have strong doubts that schools are collaboratively targeting and blocking repl.it in particular.

My spouse is a teacher and can confirm that their IT dept uses a very broad brush in blocking things on the network. Many of the blocks are of sites that have become important teaching resources such as pinterest.

Pinterest themselves go a long way towards breaking Google. Their crappy spam prevents you getting to the actual source of an image. I can’t believe Google tolerate it.

If a pupil somehow manages to access pornographic, violent, racist, whatnot content the school is going to be in trouble. The safest and simplest is to block liberally. No-one is going to be in trouble for blocking Pinterest.

I think that an IT department should have enough wherewithal to be able to distinguish between student accessible resources and teacher accessible resources.

From the petition[0]: "Some schools have called the site a "distraction" as kids are choosing to learn computer science and programming as opposed to working on other subjects."

[0]: https://www.change.org/p/schools-of-the-world-unblock-replit...

I don't get why this is an issue. I slacked off on many boring subjects to do the same. Building software and other digital stuff helped me think like an entrepreneur, and was a hell of a lot more educational than the rest of school.

While the goal of schooling is cultivate young minds and educate them, the reality is that schools are an institution that must implement a curriculum and they expect students to do as they are told.

Very peculiar sentence. The word "distraction" is quoted but the rest of the sentence, the strongest claim, is not quoted.

Where does the "are choosing to learn computer science and programming as opposed to working on other subjects" come from? It is implicitly attributed to "some schools", but which schools? did they really say that, or is the author paraphrasing something they said? or is it the author's interpretation or guess of their motivation?

Or perhaps this is viral marketing, or in other words, BS.

Is this a widespread phenomenon, or a few dumb administrators in a few places? The article doesn't give much context.

In a country of 350M people, "some" schools are going to block hopscotch or using improper fractions for whatever dumb reason. Why should I care?

Could be they overzealously blocked a load of things that could be used to cheat on exams (a REPL can be used as a calculator). Never attribute to malice etc.

Not saying it’s right but I think it’s unlikely there’s some nefarious current in teaching to stop kids learning to program.