Reading 14

I think it is a little bit of a stretch to say coding is the new literacy. Tech, in general, has become one of the driving forces of the economy and a working knowledge of popular technical concepts is a huge asset in the workforce. That being said, jobs are still primarily not coding jobs and people can get by fine without having ever taking a coding class (in school or online). Whether or not coding has become so pervasive that it can be thought of as the new literacy, I think it would be highly beneficial to the American population if everyone were to be exposed to computer science in grade school. Nobody would make the argument that music is the new literacy, and yet, we start taking music classes early on in school simply so we can gain a basic appreciation. Exposure to CS in grade school would both give everyone a basic understanding of tech and would give those with a particular aptitude or interest an avenue to pursue it before they get to high school and college.

One of the biggest issues school face trying to implement computer science programs is coming up with the funding. Even with the $1.3 billion dollars that have been allocated to Computer Science Education initiatives over the next 5 years, many think this still won’t be enough to reach every child. These initiatives will almost inevitably take funding, time, and resources away from other subjects, most likely the arts. Supporters would argue that technology and coding skills have become so vital in the job search that it is only fair to give everyone a chance to become a top tech person.

Computer Science should be an additional requirement at the younger ages and then maybe become an elective once students get into middle school or high school. By that point kids should have a solid enough understanding to know whether or not the area is right for them. It’s hard to say exactly what should be taught but I think the focus should be more on computer literacy and computational thinking than on programming. As noted earlier, the vast majority of people are not going to go into coding-heavy jobs (at least at present). The vast majority of people WILL however go into professions heavily influenced or augmented by tech so it is important to have a working knowledge of how that works and what kinds of problems can be solved using tech and programming. I worked doing software development at an Investment Bank this past summer. One of the women I worked for was telling me that a few years ago, right as machine learning was getting popular, the Investment Banking Technology department hired a bunch of Machine Learning PHD’s and told them to talk to the bankers and figure out ways to use ML to make the division more efficient. They rapidly realized that the bankers knew so little about tech and Machine Learning that they weren’t asking the right questions (questions that ML would be helpful to answer) and the tech people knew so little about the business side of things that they weren’t coming up with helpful solutions. The woman I was talking to explained that we as a society are rapidly reaching a point where either the business people are going to need a deeper understanding of tech or the tech people are going to need a deeper understanding of business. According to her the former is far more likely.

That was my long winded way of saying that even if you’re going into something like Investment Banking, traditionally completely separate from technology, it’s going to be super important to understand at the very least what questions can be solved with programming, let alone how to actually solve them. Doctors are going to need to know about computers in order to improve biotech. Politicians need to understand that which they will be regulating.

I used to think that everyone could learn to program but the more I think about it the more I equate it to math, where everyone can do the basics but I think it takes a particular brain or willingness to work hard to be able to do some of the higher level things. I’d like to say that everyone should learn to program because I think that it is helpful for a general understanding or certain professions and the world, but I also recognize that there are some people it is a little impractical and unhelpful for. My brother will never learn to program nor should he. It would take him far too much time and I don’t see it being applicable enough to his hopeful career as a fireman.