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What is the point? Children need to learn how to think, not how to code.
by sfk 11y ago
What is the point? Children need to learn how to think, not how to code.
- rtp 11y agoYou could reverse that and say that you can learn how to think by learning how to code.
- crdoconnor 11y agoIt appears to be a PR stunt to promote putting programming on the core curriculum. I guess they're either trying to attract foreign IT investment or creating a wedge to create space for more privatization in the Finnish schooling system (they're bringing in private sector expertise to teach programming). It might be a reaction to the slow death of Nokia, too.
- juhq 11y agoIt's part of country wide upcoming curriculum change, not a PR stunt, read more from http://koodi2016.fi/ http://koodi2016.fi/ (site in Finnish, use google translate) No privatization will happen in Finnish school systems. There's always been professional people giving seminars, talks and teaching, but usually in university/college levels.
- dirtyaura 11y agoI think your cynicism is unwarranted. What I've understood, Reaktor's Code School for Children has been a very much grassroots effort and not a calculated PR stunt.
- BBopUndRawkS 11y agoA code school sponsored by a private company is very much a calculated effort. Reaktor is very much focused on profit through staff augmentation and project implementations. This code school is to establish branding.
- crdoconnor 11y agoI was referring to the Prime Minister's visit not the school.
- sfk 11y ago"Hacker" News is getting more and more fun. Always the same 20+ people commenting, idiotic downvotes, uninformed comments. Here is another chance for downvoting for the WP-admin types.
- sfk 11y agoNow some WP-admin will quote the HN guidelines and feel proud.
- hobs 11y agoYou might just want to take a chill pill and get off the internet a bit; I know it can be frustrating when you get a downvote for an honestly held opinion, but the best thing to do is take your licks instead of what you are doing here.
- vidarh 11y agoLearning to code requires you to learn how to structure and subdivide a problem. Large parts of software engineering training is devoted to teaching people to think about problems in more formal ways. More people should learn to code earlier exactly because it helps practising reasoning skills.
- sfk 11y agoMost software engineers think about problems in bureaucratic (object-oriented) ways and not in formal ways, because they have been ruined by their "training". Once they have a job, they discover that convoluted OO code bases offer great job security, so nothing will ever change.
- afarrell 11y agoFor years, people have said that learning Latin teaches you to think better. Why would not the same be true of learning Python or Lisp?
- nicolapede 11y agoBecause to learn Latin you usually (at least in the country where I learnt it) have to read Virgil, Seneca, Tacitus and so on. They are not mandatory if you instead want to learn Python.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- afarrell 11y agoThat was distinctly not the case when I learned Latin. Though it does explain the origin of that mindset.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoHow do you feel about wood shop and home ec and teaching art and music.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoI'm wondering if they are obsolete, like quill pens and slide rules. Who has a wood shop? What jobs are available with those skills? and so on. Its an old middle-class ideal that every kid should learn those things, plus flower arranging and calculating a bearing on your yacht.
- hobs 11y agoThis is the kind of comment I would expect on hacker news. Who has a woodshop? Carpenters, cabinet makers, furniture makers, CNC operators, instrument makers, boat makers, the list goes on. The basic ability to decompose and fix real world objects is quite important, and our cushioned zones of computer bliss may make us forget that we need all of those people to keep not posting on hacker news and learning how to use physical tools.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoAgain, those are things that people with money can do. The vast mass of humanity doesn't have any access to a CNC mill, nor do they make boats in their basement (e.g.because they live in a small apartment). Its a first-world middle-class idea, was my point.
- hobs 11y agoAnd its completely first world to assume that a boat maker is not a profession, but something a hobbyist would pursue.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoI don't understand. Nobody's talking hobbies. Its absurd to imagine the average high school student will be a boatmaker or woodsmith. One in a million get to do things like that. Might as well be learning to make buggy whips or opera glasses.