Should programming be core curriculum in high school?

This blog was prompted by being a sounding board on conversations about programming being a ‘life skill’ that should be mandated in high school, along with a perk up on the topic of universal programming literacy in the Twitter-sphere. I also hear a number of (especially non-CS professional parents) talk with energy on how they are persuading their kids to make a career in data science/computer science (by which they generally mean programming on steroids, which is largely where the industry demand for CS undergraduates comes from). Is this a smart play on the…