As someone who has worked with software developers for years, whose father was a computer programmer, and who gets the basic concepts of 'coding', I have to agree with Ms Wente. Unless you are an actual software programmer - which really isn't suited for every temperament (certainly not mine) - it's enough to grasp the concept of how a computer works and what coding does. You can learn that later in life.

Teach the 6 to 14 year olds how to read, write and do math - many don't (many software programmers don't either, which means they're stuck working like the word processors of yore in little cubicles).   Once people can read and write (and think), programming is not such a mystery, and in a world where communication is king, they'll succeed.