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In a technical sense, you're 100% correct. If there's a better way to teach the same concepts without actually programming, that would be really useful. In a pr
by mncolinlee 12y ago
In a technical sense, you're 100% correct. If there's a better way to teach the same concepts without actually programming, that would be really useful. In a pragmatic sense, it's not helpful to the cause.
For engineers, it's easy to get concerned about the trees and miss the forest. If a time-strapped journalist comes across a highly-upvoted blog post on a tech site, the headline won't be , "Engineer suggests strong alternatives to coding in school." It'll be closer to, "Coder suggests kids shouldn't code."
Pedantry is a luxury our profession heaps on the world, often without regard for how our subtle nuance is completely missed.
- ibdknox 12y ago> If there's a better way to teach the same concepts without actually programming, that would be really useful. In a pragmatic sense, it's not helpful to the cause. These seem contradictory. We can either teach a narrow swatch of people to "code" or we can search for other ways to impart the important bit: modeling. The entire argument of the essay is that we should be looking for those "really useful" ways. > If a time-strapped journalist comes across a highly-upvoted blog post on a tech site I'm not sure focusing on getting a message out to someone who won't read the entire post is a worthwhile pursuit.
- mncolinlee 12y agoMaybe I'm being too wordy. It's not what you say, but the way you say it. If you're suggesting an alternative means, don't sell it upfront as "don't teach coding."