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I would look at it from an even more basic perspective. We look at children learning to play chess as good for their cognitive development. Learning programming

I would look at it from an even more basic perspective. We look at children learning to play chess as good for their cognitive development. Learning programming could likely play the same role, with the added bonus of having a practical purpose. For that reason I think it'd be misguided to lean too heavily on testing their performance — kids learning chess aren't required to reach certain level at the end of the year, the goal is to go through the training itself.

zdkl 9y ago
Your metaphor makes sense, but I'd argue programming is more aligned with subjects like say physics, where you need to give at least a basic understanding of the fundamentals. I mean this in opposition to the more optional side of chess club. Sure we don't expect all participants to become outstanding engineers in either physics or programming but I'd argue it'd be a good thing to require at least some level of understanding of the underlying "sciencey" (or engineering) qualities.