Why learn code early?
You’ve probably seen this format in every other article on this topic. You could easily assume that I would start this article by telling you what coding/programming is, and then start listing the reasons as to why is it important for everyone to learn to write code.
Nah! Instead, I want to explain what led me to pursue programming and why I think it’s important (note: No compulsion) to learn this skill from an early age.
I want to start by rewinding my life to 1998, this is when I used a computer for the very first time(Give to take a year.). It was an old generation Intel PC with 128MB DDR1 RAM, 20GB Hard disk; I believe it had a Pentium processor. My very first interaction with a computer was when I used MS paint to “Draw” something. It was my hand giving instructions to the computer to draw something on the screen. I was actually communicating with the machine. I wondered how this communication between a human and a computer was possible. That interaction started my love for computers and a whole new world of mystery and questions has opened up for me, with just a single question in my mind, “How can a machine do that?”. Thus, my journey began.
After endless sessions of painting mountains with a stream of water flowing between them (We’ve all done that on paint.) to ripping movies to be stored on a DVD, I understood that learning a programming language helped me give commands to the device. But, It was not until after I finished high school did I learn to code. There’s been no stopping since then. Every programming language I’ve learned since then has made me interact with the machine differently and excitingly. Being trilingual all my life, I felt for the first time I could talk in many more languages (pun intended). And, I believe everyone should learn this skill for fun at least.
In the world that we are living in, schools teach Maths, Biology, Social Sciences, etc. by saying that the children have to learn about their surroundings. It isn’t an overblown statement when I say that we are more surrounded by technology than any other generation that lived before us. In an age where 8-year-old kids use Amazon Alexa to switch on/off lights in their room, they have to be taught, at the least on a basic level, about the communication between humans and devices.
This issue, at its core, is not making a person learn the entire syntax of a programming language, making them write code and launch a rocket to start a company to rival SpaceX or bag a job at a tech mammoth’s like FAANG. The very essence of introducing programming at an early age is to help the child develop new ways of thinking and problem-solving skills. This, in some ways, can be referred to as “Computational thinking”.
According to Wikipedia “Computational Thinking is the thought processes involved in formulating a problem and expressing its solution(s) in such a way that a computer-human or machine — can effectively carry out”[1]. Computational thinking, in my perspective, is understanding the problem and instead of jumping toward finding solutions, breaking it into different smaller problems logically, with each having its own piece to contribute to the result when solved. This provides a structured solution to the problem backed by logic and reason. One very good explanation for this is given as follows:
“So what is computational thinking? If you’ve ever improvised dinner, pat yourself on the back: You’ve engaged in some light CT.
There are those who open the pantry to find a dusty bag of legumes and some sad-looking onions and think, “Lentil soup!” and those who think, “Chinese takeout.” A practiced home cook can mentally sketch the path from raw ingredients to a hot meal, imagining how to substitute, divide, merge, apply external processes (heat, stirring), and so on until she achieves her end. Where the rest of us see a dead end, she sees the potential for something new.”[2]
And as all the good things have to come to an end, so does this article. In conclusion, I’d like to say that this type of thinking paves way for training the brain, allowing those who learn to break every problem into smaller bits and understand better. This provides solutions backed by logic and reason which helps humanity in paving the way to more creative problems and solutions. Introducing this trait in coming generations, starting young, will open our little planet to a whole new set of opportunities to make it a much better place to live in.
The End. Or The Beginning?
[1] Jeannette M. Wing (2014) “Computational Thinking Benefits Society”
[2] Tasneem Raja “Is Coding the New Literacy?”
