The next generation of creators: Why every elementary school student should be coding
When he was 12 years old, Mark Zuckerberg coded a messaging app for his father’s dental office, allowing the receptionist to alert Mark’s dad that a new patient had arrived. At age 13, Bill Gates took advantage of a teletype terminal purchased for his school, writing games and other programs with new friend Paul Allen. Steve Jobs grew up learning from his adoptive father how to take apart and reconstruct electronics.
Before becoming some of the most successful tech company CEOs in history, these kids had one thing in common: an interest in technology at a young age and parents who encouraged them.
According to Code.org, more than 90 percent of parents want their child to study computer science, yet only six states have K-12 computer science standards and only 40 percent of schools teach computer programming.
While better educational technology can make a difference, parents play a major role in getting their kids started early. Children can start learning to code while they’re still in elementary school, and teaching them those skills at an early age will not only improve their chances of success in school, but better prepare them for their jobs and lives when they’re grown.
Being a user doesn’t cut it anymore
The early start of many tech company CEOs puts them ahead of their peers and competition. But that won’t be the case for much longer. Zuckerberg, Gates, and Jobs were once exceptions. Now they need to be the norm.
Oxford University researchers have estimated that 47 percent of all jobs could be automated in the next 20 years. IBM’s CEO has called for teaching the skills required of “new collar” jobs in cybersecurity, data science, artificial intelligence and cognitive business.
By itself, a traditional education won’t prepare your kids for this future. To truly work in partnership with technology, kids need to learn how those technologies work, how to fix them when they break, how to upgrade them to fit new demands, and how to create new machines and applications when the old ones won’t do. Every child should be coding in grade school if they want a shot at the jobs of our automated future.
Why elementary school students should be coding
First and foremost, coding is essential 21st century literacy. It’s as important as reading and writing. It’s as important as math. Software runs the world, from air traffic control to making sure you’re on time for your doctor’s appointment to, increasingly, self-driving cars and digital assistants. If we don’t teach our kids how these systems work, they won’t have the tools or ability to shape and improve the world.
The second advantage is that getting started at a young age removes all assumptions and misconceptions about computer science. Start teaching kids in high school, and coding might be “nerdy.” Gender stereotypes can get in the way of young women who might otherwise gravitate to technology. But start them in grade school, before those mental roadblocks have formed, and coding is just fun.
And of course there are the side benefits, like learning problem-solving. From figuring out how to represent a concept in language a machine will understand to finding and working out the bugs in a new piece of software, coding teaches kids to be creative, methodical, and resilient.
Programming is the soul of technology
Teach your kids to be creators rather than consumers. Give them the skills to navigate an automated future. Start them coding while they’re still in elementary school. Foster the skills needed for kids to operate and design the future — and even become the next Mark Zuckerberg.
