Starting this September, every single K-12 student in Great Britain will start taking classes in computer programming. That is, kids at the age of five will take programming, and they won’t stop until they’re 16 at least. A majority of these children will be using the free online learning platform Codecademy, says co-founder Zach Sims. Ditto France, Estonia and Buenos Aires.
In China, Codecademy, which has programming lessons contributed by more than 100,000 people from around the world, has been cloned multiple times.
Meanwhile in the U.S., where education is controlled by the states, fewer than 20 even recognize computer science as a science; the rest consider it an elective.
It is a waste of time to train everyone in computer programming. Only a small fraction of computer users ever program. Such a program is a terrible waste of resources and students’ time.
Teaching the keyboard for touch typing is, unquestionably, the most important thing to do.
Then, teach how to use a word program, file documents,, a numbers program, and how to search the internet.
In other words, use resources to teach how to take advantage of what a computer offers, not how to write code. There are plenty of people to do this.
^^^^ That same argument could be used against teaching chemistry, british lit, foreign languages, geometry, just to name a few….
I don’t think so. Those subjects go the core of a general education. Knowing how to write code is a highly specialized skill, done well by a lot of people, for whom there will always be employment. You might as well say that in the ’30s and ’40s, everyone should have learned Morse code. Waste of time.
The one skill that should be taught to everyone is how to write clear and concise English (or whatever language). And, as stated in my first post – teach them the keyboard.
For every student to learn how to write code? Good managers cannot see code writing as a desirable skill or practical use of time for those who are not hired to do it. This is why successful firms have departments who specialize in IT. But, the employees therein represent a small number of their total employment.
I spent a week at IBM in a course designed to familiarize businessmen how they could take advantage of their, and their firms’, computers. This was decades before PCs had hit the market. IBM not only never once told us, “You should know how to write code,” they, in fact, discouraged us wasting our time learning how to do so, saying, “Your time is far more valuable doing the job you were hired for, whatever it is. Let the code writers write code; you figure how to explain to them what your needs are, familiarize yourself with what your hardware is capable of, and leave them alone to get the job done for you. Good programmers are paid pretty well for their skills, but at nowhere near the rate of competent managers and executives.
In our small ($30MM) business, in what we called our “Data Processing Dept.” there were, probably, 5 – 6 employees who could write code. No one in Sales, Purchasing, Personnel, Shipping, etc., etc., could, and none ever failed to turn in excellent performances for that lack.
In this day and age, with all the software on the market for every kind of purpose, why would code-writing be a generally desirable skill?
We later sold our business to a much, much larger firm. Our DPD was so good, that without increasing the number of employees therein, they took on data processing for a number of other divisions within the corporation. Corporate headquarters always took the stand I’ve stated. “Let those who know how, and were hired to do it, do it; the rest of you do your tasks.” That hasn’t changed.
I’m almost playing devil’s advocate here. Almost.
But how often does the average manager , business man, etc. use biology, british lit, or geometry in their daily work?
I am an engineer. I did a little BASIC programing in elementary school (Hello world), then took program courses in FORTRAN, C and C++ in college and grad school. While I don’t use those skills that often, programming does teach basic logic and problems solving .. and patience.
“But how often does the average manager , business man, etc. use biology, british lit, or geometry in their daily work?”
Obviously, the answer has to be: It varies. But, those kinds of school or college courses help produce a more-rounded background, an awareness of things past and present that can make a business man more successful.
And, what you say about your programming experience is very valid for you. One must assume you took the Fortran because you wanted to. Every math course above arithmetic teaches basic logic and program solving. As an engineer, field unspecified, I’ll assume you went through the equivalent of at two full years of calculus. You may or may not have used that much in your work, but at any engineering school I’ve ever heard of, completing that level of math was required. I’d be awfully surprised if you didn’t have about that same amount of physics. And, basic electrical studies, possibly, again depending on your particular engineering field. Heck, as an Economics major in a liberal arts college, I took a course in Contract Law taught in our Civil Eng’g College, and an insurance course in our Hotel School…all to be more rounded.
I’ve never even been in a programming class, and it hasn’t slowed me up one bit – when it was necessary, I went to the guys who did it. And, they did do it. As a salesman, they weren’t going to let me write code to run on their hardware to produce a certain report format my boss wanted. Heck no! “Tell us what you want, we’ll see if we can get it that way for you.” We had a great partnership, them doing their thing, us doing ours.