On Should I Teach My Kids to Code

Nicole Laporte writes on her own miserable experience being pushed to code as a child and whether she should now teach her kids to code.

The digital literacy movement is taking off and there are a range of companies, startups, not-for-profits and government initiatives trying to encourage young people to take up coding. It’s as if, by introducing coding at a young age, we can trick kids into learning something naturally that can be challenging for adults. This approach to coding is similar to how some parents approach languages – if kids grow up in a bilingual household they take for granted a skill that most adults have to work to develop.

Getting back to kids and coding – there are a couple of debates happening at the same time.

• The first is whether everyone does need to code. The glib response is that not everyone needs to be a builder – you just call one when you need one. To which I say – there is no greater feeling than knowing how to do something yourself. Plus, knowing what a builder is actually doing helps you develop your project scope, understand their strengths and limitations and advise knowledgeably if needed.
• A second argument is that not everyone is good at coding – which is fine, but at least they know what it is.
• A third – is age 5 too young? Shouldn’t they be outside playing? I agree with this to a certain point. Kids and coding should be treated the same way as kids and maths. It is important to to introduce to young people but should not be all consuming. The difference is that kids are fascinated by mobiles/tablets – then it comes back to a parenting issue of ensuring the tykes have time away from technology.

Laporte doesn’t really come to a conclusion on whether she should teach her kids code. Her article is more a discussion on the difficulty of making kids and code both accessible, educational and interesting.