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I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You (2018)
71–80 of 88 posts
Re: I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You (2018)
#72My brother asked me when and how I though I could teach my baby niece so that she could make "a lot of money as a developper". My answer was "when she asks for it". There are many things a kid should learn, and among them, a huge number are more important than programming (plus sometimes a pre-requisite for it): - reading - writing - basic maths - critical analysis - building your own idea - defending yourself verbal…
if you want to make a lot of money, become a lawyer
Re: I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You (2018)
#73I would, were I going to have kids. "while these products may teach kids specific coding languages, they actually have very little to do with the work of creating software." Yes, and learning to read has little to do with the dramatic structures of high literature, but without the one you're going to struggle to express the other. This article comes across as attention-seeking contrarianism.
Very true. That being said though, you need to also show and teach them the fun in exploring programming, as the article touches on. The same can be said about math. It is important to take the time and get fluent in basic arithmetic to go further in your studies, but that can't come at the cost of the child hating math because it is so boring, or the child thinking it is only a "repeat what is written as the answer" subject.
Re: I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You (2018)
#74the reason there is a push to teach more people to code, who would otherwise not, is that it increases supply which then brings the cost down for large companies who need lots of cheap coders.
Re: I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You (2018)
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
what worries me is the code-monkey idea behind everyone can/need to code. I don't want coding to become the blue-collar skill of the next decade.
I hope you didn't mean this as elitist as it comes across. There's nothing wrong with blue-collar coding
Yes there is. As a craft, it dies.
Re: I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You (2018)
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
what worries me is the code-monkey idea behind everyone can/need to code. I don't want coding to become the blue-collar skill of the next decade.
I hope you didn't mean this as elitist as it comes across. There's nothing wrong with blue-collar coding
I meant it in a way that if coding becomes a blue-collar job salaries will go lower, people who have ambition will move into another field, work life will get harder.
Re: I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You (2018)
#77I agree (at least from personal experience w/classes my son has taken) that most "programming" courses, especially those using Scratch-like and gamified environments, have taught him absolutely nothing -- they'll get a sprite to move or whatever through trial-and-error or copy/paste, but I don't think there's much learning -- they just get "games" that look like total crap compared to what they're used to without the slightest clue how to get from here to there. (Whereas when we programmed text games in Z80 asm or Basic, our result was pretty much on-par with what you'd expect to get from somewhere else.)
OTOH, as a developer, teaching your own kid programming, if you are passionate about it, certainly beats teaching them nothing.
Re: I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You (2018)
#78If you don’t want to teach your kids to code, ok. I actually think the sugar cookie example is analogous to web development, especially styling/CSS. As someone who has taught children how to do html/css/ basic JS it’s amazing to see how they progress; the creativity a child can have is unpredictable but usually inspiring. Also, why is pocket acting like amp with the url? :/ :/ :/
The real URL, had to search to find it as there's no way to access it from the linked Pocket version https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/12/against-teaching-ki...
So the post should be linked here instead and have a [2018] suffix added to it, then.
Any mods care to fix?
Re: I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You (2018)
#79> This gives the impression that not teaching kids to code is somehow equivalent to not teaching them to read. That is, of course, ridiculous. Coding is not the new literacy.
Except coding is like literacy. Not everybody needs to be a professional writer, but there are few jobs today where reading and writing isn't a necessity and even fewer where it isn't a useful skill. Outside of work, reading and writing can be sources of pleasure and applied in many different hobbies and disciplines.
Coding is the same way. If you know how to do it, you may see ways to make your life easier by programming that someone who doesn't know how to could never even imagine. sure, lots of people do fine without the skill, but when reading wasn't taught to everybody, those people also got by without that skill.
There was a time when using a computer and programming one were much more tightly coupled than they are today, but with computers more powerful than ever and users less savvy than ever, their magic is lost on many.
My (already born) children will learn to code, not because I want them to be developers, but because I want whatever job they have to be simpler and easier and more fun.
Re: I’m a Developer. I Won’t Teach My Kids to Code, and Neither Should You (2018)
#80I have a feeling this was posted a couple months ago here...