I taught myself how to code when I was in primary school, decades ago.<p>I just happen to have a university degree and work on IT now, but I consider programming about as important as literacy and elementary level math. That is, I would be absolutely handicapped if I didn't know programming.<p>I can't fathom how society doesn't recognize the importance of this skill. despite how much computers are used. Everybody spends so many hours on them now, and they do so without any efficiency because most can't code, so they can only get things done as directed by a program that's been written by somebody else. Insanity.