I pretty much agree with everything you wrote. I'm not a professional coder, but I program as a hobby. I'm of the opinion that broad spectrum exposure to prog

I pretty much agree with everything you wrote. I'm not a professional coder, but I program as a hobby. I'm of the opinion that broad spectrum exposure to programming is a good thing, much like exposure to foreign languages in high school. I don't expecting everyone to take to programming, or German, but without some exposure, you may never know this wonderful world exists. And without knowing, your latent talents might go to waste. My sister and I had the same exposure to computers as children. I learned to program shortly thereafter, and she never did. I think the main difference there being that I am a self-learner, and she was an other-learner. Meaning she did better in a teacher/student environment and I did better figuring stuff out on my own, asking questions only when I was ready for the answer. If a brief course in programming had been taught in school when we were growing up, she might have discovered a knack for it. Who knows. Maybe not. She's a doctor now, delving in that messiness that is people, so maybe programming wouldn't have been attractive to her. I couldn't not program though. I read Neuromancer in 4th or 5th grade, and while I had been programming before then, that book sealed the deal for me.