4 ms·

I can imagine an article just like this, several hundred years ago, with the title Stop Teaching "Kids To Write". Programming is fast becoming the new literacy

I can imagine an article just like this, several hundred years ago, with the title Stop Teaching "Kids To Write". Programming is fast becoming the new literacy.

timr 13y ago
Speaking as someone who has taught a lot of students, let me assure you: literacy is the new literacy. Most kids entering college (in the US at least) are abysmally bad at reading and writing. Programming skills won't help you if you can't read or communicate in writing.
- kolinko 13y ago
  When you teach programming, you teach reading, writing and logic as well.
  - kylemaxwell 13y ago
    If that were the case, then programmers would have fantastic documentation skills. And yet, by and large that's not the case.
    - platz 13y ago
      Agree - I tire of the grammar used by techies and programmers which, even writing in their native language, sounds like one of a 2nd-year foreign immigrant. They cannot (or care not to) empathize with how a reader might interpret their words.
    - kolinko 13y ago
      Good documentation takes effort. I bet much of the docs are lousy because of laziness or poor priorities. Apart from that, the question is not whether the documentation is good or bad, but whether it's better or worse than the one a non-programmer would write. Finally, even apart from writing skills, programming teaches you how to comprehend what you're reading (docs), and how to solve problems.
  - timr 13y ago
    Again, let me assure you: no. You pretty much work with what you're given. Nobody teaches basic English at the college level unless they're being paid specifically to bring remedial students up to speed (and before you ask: yes, that includes freshman English class). I've taught a few "writing intensive" lab courses, but that basically meant that we forced the students to write a lot, and that we were allowed to brutalize them for crappy writing (roughly 85% of the students). We spent no time teaching them how to write, nor could we: we barely had time to teach the subject at hand.

I can imagine an article just like this, several hundred years ago, with the title Stop Teaching "Kids To Write". Programming is fast becoming the new literacy.

timr 13y ago

Speaking as someone who has taught a lot of students, let me assure you: literacy is the new literacy. Most kids entering college (in the US at least) are abysmally bad at reading and writing. Programming skills won't help you if you can't read or communicate in writing.

kolinko 13y ago
When you teach programming, you teach reading, writing and logic as well.
- kylemaxwell 13y ago
  If that were the case, then programmers would have fantastic documentation skills. And yet, by and large that's not the case.
  - platz 13y ago
    Agree - I tire of the grammar used by techies and programmers which, even writing in their native language, sounds like one of a 2nd-year foreign immigrant. They cannot (or care not to) empathize with how a reader might interpret their words.
  - kolinko 13y ago
    Good documentation takes effort. I bet much of the docs are lousy because of laziness or poor priorities. Apart from that, the question is not whether the documentation is good or bad, but whether it's better or worse than the one a non-programmer would write. Finally, even apart from writing skills, programming teaches you how to comprehend what you're reading (docs), and how to solve problems.
- timr 13y ago
  Again, let me assure you: no. You pretty much work with what you're given. Nobody teaches basic English at the college level unless they're being paid specifically to bring remedial students up to speed (and before you ask: yes, that includes freshman English class). I've taught a few "writing intensive" lab courses, but that basically meant that we forced the students to write a lot, and that we were allowed to brutalize them for crappy writing (roughly 85% of the students). We spent no time teaching them how to write, nor could we: we barely had time to teach the subject at hand.