If you pay attention to any type of media that has a focus on education, teaching and learning you will have inevitably seen the argument that all children/students should learn to code. The argument runs along this line… computers are everywhere today which means coding is the new literacy or skill of the future; therefore everyone should learn how to code. While this argument makes some sense I have always been hesitant to fully endorse it because I see so many other fundamental skills that our children need. I am not alone in this hesitation.
Jeff Atwood a career programmer who founded two successful software startups is deeply skeptical about teaching all kids to code. Atwood believes that basic exposure to computer science is fine but it should not come at the expense of other fundamental skills like reading, writing and math. He also wants:
children to understand how the Internet works. But this depends more on their acquisition of higher-order thinking than it does their understanding if ones and zeroes. It is essential that they that treat everything they read online critically. Where did that Wikipedia page come from? Who wrote it? What is their background? What are their sources?
Atwood reminds us that many programmers would be much more successful if they could read and write better, think critically and communicate effectively–essentially be better learners.
The longer I spend in the education the more I am convinced it’s about the learning, it’s about making meaningful connections and sharing those connections with others.
