It’s the end of the year and the economy is recovering. People are finally going back to work. The unemployment rate is dropping, in large part, due to an expansion of hourly and temporary jobs.

While those jobs aren’t career-defining endeavors, they can be the first step toward financial stability and economic security.

But working a part-time, temporary job is not a long-term solution for middle-class Americans who were displaced during the Great Recession. That’s why lots of smart people are asking the question, “How do we create meaningful, sustainable employment?”

And the common answer seems to be that you need to learn how to code.

Everybody is jumping on the programming bandwagon. Celebrities from Angela Bassett to Chris Bosch to Shakira want you and your kids to become computer scientists.

But are human computer programmers needed?

Maybe not. More and more, computers are doing the work of programmers and programming themselves.

Machine learning is an old concept in the world of artificial intelligence that you can experience in your every day life. Many of the gifts you were given for the holidays—such as your phone, GPS and wireless fitness trackers—are programmed with the ability to get smarter.

And your phone is just the beginning.

Wired reports that, “The Pentagon has begun a project to build machines that learn and evolve, using algorithms — ‘probabilistic programming’ — to parse through vast amounts of data and select the best of it. After that, the machine learns to repeat the process and do it better.”

The New York Times reports, “Computers have entered the age when they are able to learn from their own mistakes, a development that is about to turn the digital world on its head. The first commercial version of the new kind of computer chip is scheduled to be released in 2014. Not only can it automate tasks that now require painstaking programming — for example, moving a robot’s arm smoothly and efficiently — but it can also sidestep and even tolerate errors, potentially making the term “computer crash” obsolete.”

So when someone like Ashton Kutcher tells his fans that American workers need to learn how to code, I applaud the enthusiasm; however, there is no silver bullet when it comes to getting Americans back to work.

Honestly, I worry that it’s 1998 and American workers are being encouraged to join telecom companies and prepare for Y2K.

I think that some American workers need to have computer programming skills, but I strongly believe that a core education in humanities, math and science—along with a good foundation in political history and economics—will help future generations of Americans become better employees, smarter entrepreneurs, and more engaged citizens.

And I really think we should be teaching kids logic so they learn how to think and how to dismiss.

But teaching kids logic is different than teaching programming skills. Logic leads to opportunity. Coding without context leads to little more than 21st century factories.

So as the economy continues to recover, we should stop making false promises to American workers.

Training a bunch of people to code doesn’t get a majority of Americans back to work in middle-class jobs.

While I think that some people should code, I absolutely think everyone should get some exercise. And while I think everyone should know a little something about computers, everyone should really learn how to ride a bike. And everyone should experience the beauty of Picasso, see the Great Wall of China, and feel the warmth of unconditional love.

But let’s be honest with one another. Not everyone should learn how to code.