You should read http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/07/separating-programming-sheep-from-non-programming-goats.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/07/s

You should read http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/07/separating-programming-sheep-from-non-programming-goats.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/07/separating-programm... (or the linked paper, if you want something heavier). Maybe everyone can learn to code, but the research says that a portion of the population (on the order of half) isn't wired to think that way, and at least would take orders of magnitude more time to learn (if they can at all). I'm by no means claiming that this segment of the population is more or less intelligent than the rest, but to make claims like "everyone can learn to program" is to ignore the realities of the classroom.