As
a follow-up to my last blog post, I came across a dissenting opinion on the
programming push. In addition to the
technology and Hollywood elite lending their voices to this topic, evidently
politicians got in on it as well. In an
unusual show of bipartisanship, both President Obama (Democrat) and House
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Republican) released statements demonstrating
their support for the idea that everyone should learn how to code. With even more heavyweights backing this
concept, it is hard to imagine any opposition to the idea of programming skills
for all. An interesting voice of
dissention comes from Jeff Atwood, a computer programmer of all things (NPR,
2014). Atwood began creating computer
games in the 80’s at the impressive age of 12.
He compares the recent push for programming education to wanting
everyone to become auto mechanics.
Should every driver possess a basic knowledge of their automobile? Absolutely.
Does everyone need to rebuild an engine?
Probably not.
If
I understand Atwood’s opposition it’s that like any difficult or involved proficiency,
programming is a perishable skill. We
already require students to learn a plethora of topics in school from reading
and writing to increasingly progressive fields of math. Like working on your car, everyone should
have a basic understanding of computing, but perhaps not everyone needs to
learn how to code. Atwood does
acknowledge that should a student demonstrate an interest for this arena, more
and more resources are developed every day to help further one’s coding
skills. Combining these two viewpoints,
I would argue that every student should be exposed to the basics of programming
at an early age. Much like language and
musical abilities, I would venture a guess that developing a coding aptitude is
easier at a younger age. To further
illustrate this point I recently heard about a 5 year old who managed to hack
into his Dad’s Xbox Live account (Seppala, 2014). Barely older than a toddler, the kid
discovered a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft’s gaming platform.
Hacking
at 5, programming at 12…I’m feeling old.
References
NPR Staff. (2014). Computers are
the future, but does everyone need to code? NPR.
Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/01/25/266162832/computers-are-the-future-but-does-everyone-need-to-code
Seppala, T. J. (2014). Watch a 5-year-old spam the spacebar to
access his dad's Xbox Live account. Engadget.
Retrieved from http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/04/xbox-live-five-year-old-hacker/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full
