Should Our Kids Learn to Code?

George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 4 March 2020.]

As more and more young people finish their education today with unemployable skill sets, while employers are looking for people who can think on their feet and solve problems, the question of whether and how to teach high schoolers the elements of programming comes up.  Given that our world is now almost entirely software driven, and will become even more so tomorrow, you would think that programming or learning to code should become one of an educated citizen’s basic skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic which reached those expectations over a hundred years ago.

But there is a curious mix of people who argue against teaching such a skill to students in our public schools.  Some see acquiring coding skills to be equivalent to vocational training, against which many have argued for decades.  It’s hard to believe that there were educators against teaching high schoolers skills with which to earn a living after graduation, especially when so few students went on to college.  Stanford professor of computer science Robert Sedgewick points out that coding “is not vocational training any more than English is vocational training for journalists or economics is vocational training for business executives.” 

In the early part of the 20^th century more than 90% of students entered the workforce without college degrees.  But our schools did teach them skills beyond literacy and arithmetic that were needed in the workplace.  Yet academics like former Stanford education professor Dr Larry Cuban continue to argue that coding is the same as teaching vocational skills such as machine shop and home economics.  Such courses for them have been a wrong-headed “imposition of those requirements (that) for years served to undermine the broader cultural goals of public schools—such as social mobility, individual development and civic engagement.”  Yet everyone today knows that all of those broader cultural goals are only possible for those who can be gainfully employed.

In response, Dr Sedgewick points out that “teaching students to code introduces them to logical thinking, as well as fostering creativity and problem-solving skills. It encourages experimentation, develops persistence and promotes collaboration. Learning to think as a coder gives one a valuable set of strategies for understanding a variety of situations that one will encounter later in life—particularly those who are working outside of tech.” (more here and here)

In my own teaching experience, I have confirmed that learning to code is also a painless introduction to critical thinking.  The experience provides a gender-free sense of empowerment, as the students make machines and data sing at the touch of their finger.  Coding and algorithmics – devising stepwise procedures for efficiently solving problems - are fields connected at the hip.  Immersive coding is a ‘flow experience’, almost like being in another universe that contains its own resources and rules for new and powerful tools.  Tools which you control and with which you can assemble wondrous machines.  For young people anticipating college or a job after high school, having mastered the elements of coding is tremendously empowering as they experience the opening of new worlds of possibilities and understanding.

But today we also have an emerging dark side of coding and computer science, one more political enterprise that is seeking a foothold in secondary education.  It is called ‘culturally responsive computing’, and is devised by the politically correct mavens of identity politics.  The proposed curriculum is primarily directed at minorities, and claims to educate students through the implementation of “computing-culture connections” that inject such arcane concepts as “African mathematics”.  The entire enterprise is a massive diversion from teaching kids substantive skills valuable for work and further studies.  Fundamentally, it is one more area of ethnic-gender education that would join the other useless but feel-good subjects which already displace substantive learning in our public schools.  Look for it at a school district near you. (more here)

In the meantime, I strongly recommend that you support the advent and expansion of STEM subjects that include computer science and coding in your local high schools.  Our young people need every bit of it that they can handle in a world where they will spend the rest of their lives.

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on Rebane’s Ruminations where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively.  However, my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

Comments

[The Estonian Fox]

Expansion of STEM subjects indeed - the government is doing this on their own. It must now be spelled PSTEM (the 'P' is silent) since it comes from the Greek letter psi.

How else do you explain the acceptance of male-bodied females, except under the guise of pseudoscience? How can STEM and PSTEM coexist? If the PSTEMmers are adamant and victorious, then science is surely dead for a large percentage of students.

[Gregory]

Who, specifically, in Nevada County, employed in our schools and the County Super's office, is capable of doing a credible job of teaching students "how to code", outside of a targeted AP class?

And what, exactly, is STEM besides a useless handle that smears the boundary between math, science and "technology" and "engineering"in ways that allow for crowing by the Education professionals who have screwed up the schools in the first place?

No, pushing for 'coding' as a K-12 subject is not a good idea.

I did use Sedgewick's 'Algorithms in C' book when in the business of writing functioning programs without reinventing the wheel.

[George Rebane]

Gregory 449pm - A remarkable position indeed. Can you expand on why teaching coding "as a K-12 subject is not a good idea."?

I have no idea who can do it now. To my knowledge, the only one capable of teaching students to code at NUHS was my mentee Ryan Brott, the incomparable TechTest virtuoso who taught the subject to his fellow students as part of his own curriculum. He is now a computer science junior at Princeton.

[George Rebane]

EstonianF 436pm - The history of science is replete with its establishment's proscription of contradictory truths discovered by outsiders. Today, when doing original science has become a more expensive endeavor that requires kowtowing to politically motivated interpretations, the ongoing proscriptions have a much greater impact on the allowed advances in science. Most people think that such practices disappeared with Galileo and Copernicus. Far from it, as we read of the struggles of Einstein, Gödel, Turing, et al, and witness the goings on in what is purported to be "climate science".

[Gregory]

Not remarkable at all, George.

Courses like AP Programming are well defined and supported.

The only person you could identify doesn't work as a teacher. My point exactly.

[Walt]

Speaking of coding,,, how's Emery's class going?

[George Rebane]

Gregory. 812pm - You misunderstood my question about your 449pm. I did not contend the number of qualified coding teachers TODAY. What I found remarkable was your apparent approach to completely give up “pushing” for a change in the situation, namely to find some solution to getting the required qualified teachers - to you the whole effort is “not a good idea”. Of course, I believe that teaching coding somewhere in K-12 is a very good idea, and I mistakenly thought that you would share the sentiment.

[Gregory]

Yes, outside of a few well defined examples, like "AP Programming", it's a bad idea to retread existing K-12 schools that have generally failed to teach the existing subjects on their plates into doing the same shitty job teaching the kiddies how to "code".

The people qualified to teach the subject well will not take kindly to being managed by the 105 IQ types in school administrations everywhere, including Nirvana County.

[scenes]

"culturally responsive computing"

Say, I like that idea. Maybe there's room in the area for another nonprofit, getya some grant money, hire young women as Vice Presidents in charge of coffee and whatnot. We could put a branch in Truckee.

Twelve seconds of research (about all it's worth) tells me that 'culturally responsive computing' basically means remedial programming for populations that don't do well at it.

Dunno how that's different than any other subject so perhaps the implication is that we should segregate schools in a couple of dimensions. Gender, ethnicity. Will there be African math and girl math? They'll probably have to construct new buildings.

I suppose that another approach is to go the Harrison Bergeron route. Nothing better than new concepts in education.

[Gregory]

"Should All Children Learn to Code by the End of High School?"- the WSJ article

Look at it again.
Do all children learn to read and write? Functionally literate? Really?

Do all children grok algebra? Meaning the Algebra I that used to be taken in the 8th grade by those who were at grade level, facile in the arithmetic of fractions in the 7th grade. What about geometry? Writing proofs? Algebra II? Trig? Maybe a smattering of differential calculus?

How many adults draw a blank with division by a fraction? Is it because they never really learned it ... lacking profound understanding of elementary mathematics? And what happens when someone without PUFM becomes a teacher?

They do.

Yes, I do think having good instruction in computer science would be a good thing in our schools, but believing all kids would benefit is as f'ing nuts as is the idea that all schools would be competent at providing it.

ANY kid who manages to learn what is needed to enter a good college and take a sequence math courses that would lead to a bachelor's in math in four years will also be plenty ready to learn how to code, for real.

[Gregory]

here's an interesting tidbit from Jordan Peterson:

"PETERSON: I don’t think that people want to understand the rule of raw general cognitive ability because it’s such a determining factor, and it’s hard for people on the right and the left to accept it. People on the right think there’s a job for everyone if they just get off their lazy ass and do it, and people on the left think anybody can be trained to do anything.

Both of those things are seriously wrong."

https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/tyler-cowen-jordan-peterson-db9a718beebe

[George Rebane]

Gregory 302pm - no one here thinks that “there’s a job for everyone if they just get off their lazy ass and do it”. Where did that come from?

[Gregory]

gr 619pm

That came from jordan peterson.

[George Rebane]

Gregory 701pm - Right. But it's definitely one generalization too far.

[Gregory]

I don't think Peterson was intending you to take it personally.

However, educators on the left do tend towards thinking "anybody can be trained to do anything"... like all kids can learn to code in high school. And it would be great!

[fish]

Well I'm certainly not qualified to make the "all kids should code" call.....I would like to too just a bit more mathematical competence in the MSM though!

'Bloomberg Could Have Given Every American $1Million' - Liberal Media Math Exposed In Stunning Interview

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/liberal-math-msnbcs-brian-williams-ny-times-editor-think-bloomberg-could-have-given-every

[fish]

"....like to see"!

Meh!

[George Rebane]

Gregory 757am - Well, RR definitely does NOT think "anybody can be trained to do anything" - that is one of prime bases for systemic unemployment. But methinks those who can, should.

[Gregory]

"Should All Children Learn to Code by the End of High School?"- the WSJ article touted on RR. I've heard people complain about the minimal algebra kids need to squeak by to get a high school diploma; I can't imagine the howling any coding requirement would start.

Hmmm... "learn to code". What language? MIX, perhaps? It would have to be obscure and not commercially viable to pass muster by the Ed.D.'s in Sacramento.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_MIX_Development_Kit

Sedgewick, by the way, did earn his doctorate (in '75) under the great Donald Knuth at Stanfurd but he's been a professor at Princeton since leaving Brown in '85.

[Bill Tozer]

MATH IS HARD FOR LIBERALS

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/03/math-is-hard-for-liberals.php

[George Rebane]

BillT 1239pm - This is an incredible video clip Mr Tozer. We all have known for some decades that libs can't do math (look back at the archive in these pages), but to have sunk this low, and on national television, wow! The evidence just keeps pouring in, and our electorate is sufficiently innumerate to keep voting for these clowns at all levels of government. The Lord have mercy ...

[Scott O]

re the bozos that think that 327 million goes into 500 million over a million times - did you catch the line at the end? "...it's obvious there's too much money in politics."
OK - how much should there be?
...blank stare
It goes beyond not doing math - they just can't think, period.