Hi HN!<p>I'm curious to hear your opinions regarding whether or not children should be taught to code in school. In 10 years, should it be a significant, mandatory part of the curriculum, or not? Why?
I'm hoping the current frenzy around coding dies a bit, and, after the dust settles, people bother to implement it correctly.<p>Best example I can demonstrate of the ridiculousness that we are in right now:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7x7GYItzS4" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7x7GYItzS4</a><p>Teaching kids to code is fantastic -- but its not what 98% of these initiatives are doing. I got to visit a school in NYC which taught "coding" to their kids... it was literally kids copying and pasting things into a Flash editor with ZERO understanding of what they are doing... truly heartbraking.
Yes and no. Should it be taught? Yes. There are clear economic advantages to having people who have an understanding of the subject, and it makes sense to support people who are interested in it. Should it be a significant, mandatory part of the curriculum? No.<p>The point of an early education is to provide you with a broad basis of understanding in a wide range of subjects. And while it is important for people to have some idea of some of the things that computers can do, it is not necessary for them to become programmers (in the sense someone would pay them for their skill) to do that. Very simple programs will give someone somewhat of an understanding of what's at play.<p>It makes no more sense to say that everyone should have to learn programming than it does to say that everyone should have to understand calculus, or everyone should have to understand mitosis. That's knowledge they're probably never going to use. Forcing it down their throats to be thrown up in an exam and then forgotten is a ridiculous waste of time and good will on behalf of everyone involved. Quite aside from the fact that if you can get those who aren't interested to self-select out you can focus resources on those who are interested and help them get further ahead in that subject.<p>People should probably get enough exposure in primary school to be able to write toy programs when they leave. That will be sufficient to give them a few general concepts and let them get their feet wet, so to speak. After that, the mandatory criteria should be dropped.
I definitely think it should be taught. If taught correctly, I believe it could really excite children about school. Plus it just offers so many benefits even to kids that won't become programmers like problem solving, critical thinking, planning, etc.
coding in schools - possibly a mindless activity - clicking and shoving a mouse around in an excel spreadsheet or throwing together a website - without any understanding of what actually happens - might be what will be implemented when schools have coding sessions taught by teachers who struggle with the topic themselves.<p>on the other hand:<p>computer science at its core is the science of making a system go from one state to another using explicit transformations on the state of the system.<p>how to arrange these operations is computer science, to finalize them, write down the algorithm using operations in a codified form is - coding.<p>These codes are put down in a language - a programming language when using computers, a knitting pattern when making socks.<p>To learn how to sequence these operations, to convey the solution to a problem unambiguously in a language using elementary operations, building up a complex system from that and finally reaching the solution as a group of collaborators, taking pride in this achievement together...<p>I believe that there is great utility in that wherever a student may venture.
I'm not a big fan of schools, so I don't think I'd like anything they did haha. But if I was forced to come up with something I'd probably just optimize for breadth. Just exposing people to as much information about coding, software, OSes, the industry, even CS/software history. If people like what they hear they'll figure everything out (I warned that I don't like schools :D ).