3 ms·

I wrote the post, you make an excellent point that it's good to have experience in order to gain confidence. I do believe we need to address the current holes i

I wrote the post, you make an excellent point that it's good to have experience in order to gain confidence. I do believe we need to address the current holes in our education system before we start adding new course work, and that we need to work hard to help students to learn to overcome challenges and to have the confidence to attack all kinds of problems. Programming is only one skill that people are afraid to learn, there are thousands of others and we can't have elementary school classes for them all.

pessimizer 13y ago
Programming isn't only one skill, though, any more than writing or math is one skill. I think the point of elementary school is teaching enough basics that young people can navigate an area of study, have a good idea of its breadth, and decide whether they want to come back to it when they have more latitude about what they would like to study further. It also helps in business and citizenship, so you have an idea of what to pay for stuff, and you know what you're voting for. >we can't have elementary school classes for them all. We not only can have elementary school classes for it, we do, and have since I first walked into one 32 years ago. That fact is responsible for a large percentage of the programmers walking around today. >we need to address the current holes in our education system before we start adding new course work In my opinion, weakness in math (and programming) is one of the current holes in our education system. I'm also trying to argue that this is not new coursework.
- tenpoundhammer 13y ago
  I like you, you are well mannered and incredibly reasonable. I think it being or not being new coursework is a matter of location there were definitely no programming in my elementary school. I though I did start taking them in high school. I think we look at computer programming much differently in terms of our world view and should probably leave it at that. Thanks for making some great comments and being a cool person.

pessimizer 13y ago

Programming isn't only one skill, though, any more than writing or math is one skill. I think the point of elementary school is teaching enough basics that young people can navigate an area of study, have a good idea of its breadth, and decide whether they want to come back to it when they have more latitude about what they would like to study further. It also helps in business and citizenship, so you have an idea of what to pay for stuff, and you know what you're voting for. >we can't have elementary school classes for them all. We not only can have elementary school classes for it, we do, and have since I first walked into one 32 years ago. That fact is responsible for a large percentage of the programmers walking around today. >we need to address the current holes in our education system before we start adding new course work In my opinion, weakness in math (and programming) is one of the current holes in our education system. I'm also trying to argue that this is not new coursework.

tenpoundhammer 13y ago
I like you, you are well mannered and incredibly reasonable. I think it being or not being new coursework is a matter of location there were definitely no programming in my elementary school. I though I did start taking them in high school. I think we look at computer programming much differently in terms of our world view and should probably leave it at that. Thanks for making some great comments and being a cool person.