It is obvious to me how being a skilled reader, a skilled writer, and at least high school level math are fundamental to performing the job of a politician. Or

It is obvious to me how being a skilled reader, a skilled writer, and at least high school level math are fundamental to performing the job of a politician. Or at any job, for that matter. But understanding variables and functions, pointers and recursion? I can't see it. "Coding" is a simple practical skill, at first glance it seems people should learn it when they have a need for it (even if it is just automation of repetitive tasks) or when for some reason they have a deep interest in it. However, lets not forget that computers from the beginning were intended, among other things, to extend our limited human mental capabilities. There is plenty of very valuable general topics in Computer Science that can be learned well only once you know how to program, otherwise you lack a convenient vehicle for exploring those concepts. People can keep too little in their heads at once to directly deal with complicated structures or processes, but at the same time enough to be able to write programs to deal with them. Algorithms, graphs, probability are ubiquitous concepts that cut through many fields and that can only be explored in full depth via computer programs, and the applications are broad enough that it is not possible to find a ready made program for each of them. For example, in experiments people repetitively make mistakes even in very simple probabilistic considerations, where coding a Monte Carlo simulation would take maybe 20 minutes for a moderately skilled programmer. Even the Mayor could find some benefit in learning algorithmic thinking, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_path_method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_path_method