I can see where the author of both the article and the /editorialized/ article are coming from, however I don't agree with either one of them. As someone who's

I can see where the author of both the article and the /editorialized/ article are coming from, however I don't agree with either one of them. As someone who's learned from the trenches, you need to know how to program on some level. Even if you're just a lowly IT Dude, knowing some batch, a little shell and at least a little SQL can make your life * magnitudes* easier. Take for example Cisco's networking packages: IOS and CBOS CBOS and IOS are similar, but different. they have the same syntax but different connotations for them... but because I know one, I know the other. I can solve problems on one machine with basic knowledge of the overall design. Same with Linux. Or Unix. Or BSD. Or (insert *nix here). I can solve problems by thinking and using some shell to solve my problem in an elegant and useful way that I can then write down and keep in my Little Bag 'o tricks. I know how to solve problems in the IT world because I know how to program and how to think. Does this mean I have no concept of business and such? No, in fact the university I'm currently attending requires FOUR different business classes to get an IT degree. I'm not kidding you. High school doesn't teach you how to think. It's designed to push out factory workers to go into industries and do slave labor. That's been the case now for nearly 200 years, if not more. If you want to know how to get kids into a better position and get them /mentally/ into the top point, require in high school a Cognitive Problem-Solving class which requires group work to solve interesting problems like "A meteorite is going to hit us in 3 days you have these at your disposal what do you do? 2.4 million lives are at stake." and you are graded on your thought process. Maybe not the outcome, but the thought process. FWIW, I'm a C#/Shell programmer. /bin/zsh is my shell.