Last December before Christmas, I learned what a div tag was.
I learned what it does and when to use it. Now, I can inspect the code behind a website and follow what it means and what it points to. Can I write code? If it’s simple, sure. But more importantly, I can read it. I can understand it, which has helped me understand how computers work.
With coding so easy to learn, it got me thinking: why wasn’t I taught to do this in third grade?
It’s not that hard, Chris Bosh and Will.i.am. know that.
I learned what it does and when to use it. Now, I can inspect the code behind a website and follow what it means and what it points to. Can I write code? If it’s simple, sure. But more importantly, I can read it. I can understand it, which has helped me understand how computers work.
With coding so easy to learn, it got me thinking: why wasn’t I taught to do this in third grade?
It’s not that hard, Chris Bosh and Will.i.am. know that.
According to code.org, 90 percent of schools in the U.S. do not teach coding. Not even simple HTML (which, to be honest is the only coding language I can even try to write). Yet, a Mother Jones story about computational learning states that the Department of Labor will add 1.2 million computer-science-related jobs by 2022.
I don’t get the disconnect here.
A U.S. News and World Report story also says only 25 states count computer-science-related classes toward graduation at the high school level. If those are the jobs that this generation will be getting, why aren’t we taught basic programming or even computational learning in grade school?
I get it that this new software is expensive, and schools run a huge risk putting it in the hands of kids experimenting with it. But, like anything, how will they learn and gain new skills if they don’t have hands-on experience?
I think at all levels of education, there should be a greater push to teach about computers. While I do think coding is essential to know, even computational learning—understanding how a computer works, how a click path is formed and how people read online—is essential.
Schools that say they don’t have the personnel to teach it don’t embrace learning. They can be the ones who provide teachers with resources to learn it and teach it to kids.
Now that I do know a bit more about coding, I find it scary that other people don’t. If I want to know why a website looks a certain way or brings me to a certain page, I know how I can find out why.
Economist Tyler Cowen, said it well in a column on the Guardian’s website: computational learning can be the difference between entering a workforce that’s divided between “those who are good at working with intelligent machines, and those who are replaced by them.”
I don’t get the disconnect here.
A U.S. News and World Report story also says only 25 states count computer-science-related classes toward graduation at the high school level. If those are the jobs that this generation will be getting, why aren’t we taught basic programming or even computational learning in grade school?
I get it that this new software is expensive, and schools run a huge risk putting it in the hands of kids experimenting with it. But, like anything, how will they learn and gain new skills if they don’t have hands-on experience?
I think at all levels of education, there should be a greater push to teach about computers. While I do think coding is essential to know, even computational learning—understanding how a computer works, how a click path is formed and how people read online—is essential.
Schools that say they don’t have the personnel to teach it don’t embrace learning. They can be the ones who provide teachers with resources to learn it and teach it to kids.
Now that I do know a bit more about coding, I find it scary that other people don’t. If I want to know why a website looks a certain way or brings me to a certain page, I know how I can find out why.
Economist Tyler Cowen, said it well in a column on the Guardian’s website: computational learning can be the difference between entering a workforce that’s divided between “those who are good at working with intelligent machines, and those who are replaced by them.”