Primed to Code
Coding has sometimes been called a “new literacy,” so in thinking through how to make this powerful skill more universal, let’s look at what worked and what didn’t in one literacy program of yore.
Case Study: Literacy in the U.S. colonies
In 1642 the colony of Massachusetts made literacy the law. A harsh law. For five years, children unable to read The Bible could be taken from their parents. By 1647, however, faced with the reality that literacy wasn’t something that could be quickly legislated into reality, blame and responsibility shifted elsewhere (demonic forces, local government). In 1647, The Old Deluder Satan Act required that townships of 50 or more households were required to hire a teacher.
Unfortunately for these teachers, while The Puritans were big on literacy, they were not as crazy about books. For a full 40 years, the bible was the only book teachers could use, until the publication of the first edition of The New England Primer in 1688.
