Coding education, coding life

I was recently reading yet another article about the importance of teaching coding to our kids¹, and it started my wheels turning.

Where, and when, I received my primary and secondary education, computers were these nearly magical devices that sent astronauts to the moon. Even at university computers were still heavily controlled with each student in computer science classes receiving an allotment of time in the computer lab with certain students able to use the punch card machine. Today, however, nearly all of us use computers to such a degree that we measure time we spend offline instead of online.

I certainly see the importance of teaching kids about computers, and about coding. The state of mathematics and science education in America is appalling², and anything that might improve education in sciences and maths should be encouraged. Further, the very idea of this blog - that we are paid to think - encourages thinking in many different ways, or at least it should.

However...

One of the questions Eric Larson asks demonstrates the difficulty I have with the focus on completely integrating "coding".

Is it really beneficial to have tenth graders memorize dates in history when they could just as easily Google them on their iPads? Or is it better to focus on how to track down and creatively, and productively, represent that data?

Here lies the issue. I agree with the implied answer to Larson's question - no, it's not beneficial to have tenth graders memorize dates in history...but then, it never has been, even before they could "Google them on their iPads". When Santayana said "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" he did not mean those who cannot remember the dates of significant events are condemned to repeat them. It matters less the year in which Henry VII reunited the roses under House Tudor and more how he reunited them and what became of it. It matters less that the Battle of Clontarf was in 1014 than what effect that battle had on the political landscape of Ireland.

The only purpose dates serve in history is to help people organize events. A study of history should not be confined to memorizing dates any more than a study of literature should be confined to memorizing poems or a study of mathematics or physics should be confined to memorizing formulae.

As I recall, back in the days when we were allotted computer lab time, back when the Computer Science departments were still forming and companies were beginning to see the need for those who would program the behemoths that sat waiting to devour data, the insightful sought out imaginative, creative types who were also "pattern" thinkers - primarily philosophers and musicians - to fill the ranks, whether they had the functional and technical skills required or not. They saw the benefit to an education that had not integrated coding, or even the typical building blocks that coding requires.

I also recall that my sister was selected to participate in a computer programming "camp" for high school students one summer. She was, by more estimation than my biased memory, a "math whiz" and my family somehow managed to pull together the money that allowed her to participate in what we believed was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Indeed, it was a transformational experience for her - she returned convinced that working with computers was not how she wanted to spend her life - she despised them, her interest in mathematics ended, and she focused on physical science and joined the medical profession. Though it is uncertain what effect integrating computers in her education would have had, we know the effect of repeated forced study of a topic on many people and can infer what might have happened.

Should we teach our children how to code? Yes, just as we would teach them mathematics or teach them how to think critically - how to recognize fallacies such as a straw man or ad hominem argument - or teach them to read. Should we switch curricula "toward tech or coding"? No. The focus of our curricula should be teaching children to think and what tools are available for their use and let them determine best how to apply them.

I love technology as much as the next person, but we are not all cut from the same cloth. We, as a culture, need more...more art, more music, more dance...more of what makes us human. Can technology take us there? Maybe. Should coding be more important than learning to play another instrument for the musician or learning to use another media for an artist or learning another style for a dancer? No. They are all tools.

Allowing students the freedom to use tools available to them, after they have internalized the lessons we can teach enables them to build the intellectual horsepower they will need to face a complex future and motivates them to meet it head-on. Doing otherwise would be as rational as, say, basing a curriculum on when a child was born.

Notes: links open in a new window

1. Larson, Eric. Coding the Curriculum: How High Schools Are Reprogramming Their Classes. mashable.com
2. US students rank 25th in math performance. Statistics About Education in America