@Rich Mole, my comment assumed we were talking about the same subject as Ms. Wente's article which is specifically aimed at the subject of elementary school age children being taught to code. At that age, their time would be better spent outdoors getting some exercise. Junior high is a whole different subject and I agree that at that level, coding is equivalent to the old shop and home-ec courses that we had as teens. I'd be willing to bet that early exposure to programming skills is more likely to kill any ambition that a person in their developmental stages might have for a career in tech than encourage it. Much of coding is boring as hell and I speak from the experience of having an aptitude for it.