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the surprising thing is that none of his friends (nor him) learn any programming in school Why is that surprising? I am a professional programmer and frankly,

the surprising thing is that none of his friends (nor him) learn any programming in school Why is that surprising? I am a professional programmer and frankly, it's a trade skill. Teaching kids at school how to program is like teaching them plumbing or how to be an electrician. To specialise that early is just crazy. Sure, teach general logical problem solving, but to specialise as far as what is a niche skill? Sure, this is an unpopular viewpoint on Hacker News, where the audience is self-selecting to the viewpoint that programming is the most important life skill there is and that 90 percent of the population should learn to program, but that's just the typical nonsense any self-selecting audience ends up groupthinking. If this were a farming forum, people would be shouting "why aren't we teaching children how to grow turnips?".

lliwta 12y ago
> Why is that surprising? The problem isn't that everyone doesn't learn it, but that noone learns it. It wouldn't be a big deal if the elective were available but not taken by everyone. The problem is that in most cases, there isn't a programming class. Period. Ever. > "why aren't we teaching children how to grow turnips?". Why wouldn't we want to teach kids the basics of gardening? I was taught in elementary school, as part of our unit on "Biology" in second and third grade.
analog31 12y ago
Playing the violin is also a trade skill. I don't think the job market implications of programming need to be a deterrent. Programming can simply be taught as a creative activity. I learned programming because it was interesting and fun. In fact, teaching programming to kids as a trade skill is likely to turn them off.