Should Schools be Teaching Kids Coding?

by | Oct 1, 2014 | Andy's Deep Thoughts

Everyone seems to think so!  No doubt there are a ton of interesting skills like problem solving and collaboration that are developed through coding, but does that justify the call for everyone to learn to code?  I’m not so sure, but I’m sure many would disagree with me.  Still depending on what demographic of students you teach, I wonder whether coding is worth it? Why do I think this? Well it seems that because of the virtual nature of coding anyone anywhere in the world can do it.  We’ll certainly need more coders in the future, but I wonder whether this will become a job dominated by distant website developers in developing countries.  For example, before I redeveloped Learn[ed]Leadership myself I commissioned Cat Trivino, a talented & young 19-year-old Filipina website designer to build the original site.  It cost me about $350 dollars and required no coding ability on my part to get it done.  What’s crazier is that I’ve actually never met Cat in person, because all of our communications have been via email.  She designed the logo, layout, even my business cards.  What did I bring to the table besides money?   A vision for what I wanted.  Want another example?  Yesterday I wanted to change my sidebar width on this website.  I looked at a bunch of blogging websites to try and figure out how to do it, but still had no clue.  However, on a blogging forum I posted my problem and within minutes received the code to fix the sidebar.  Didn’t cost me a penny. I’m sure I have more thoughts on this, but I’m...