Kids Should Know How to Code
There has to be previous discussions on HN about this.  Does anyone have a link?<p>I&#x27;m probably going against the grain here, but do we need to teach kids to code?  Heck, does Tim Cook know how to code?<p>It&#x27;s been 20+ years now where kids have had access to computers in schools.  In the late 90&#x27;s they taught typing, Word, Excel, and Power Point.*  Looking at most of my friends from high school who aren&#x27;t in tech, that&#x27;s all they use--if that.  I was a bit surprised when my brother in law mentioned my nephews, who are about to go into high school, had never used a desktop computer.  I was a bit surprised at first, but don&#x27;t think it&#x27;ll be a problem for them and it&#x27;s probably common.<p>I <i>think</i> the expectation 25 years ago is that the average workhorse applications would be way more scriptable.  So &quot;a little&quot; computer science could be done to automate repetitive things and lead to more computer science.  I hear about Excel wizards and I&#x27;ve seen managers who are fantastic with pulling data into Power Point, but they seem very specialized to their profession.  I&#x27;ve never had to use VBA inside of a Microsoft app.  Every time I try and use AppleScript I have to dive in way more than the average person would bother (and I don&#x27;t see options like that for Windows).  Outside of work I might write a small Python&#x2F;Shell script to scrape some web pages, or sort some data.  I just can&#x27;t see someone who had a class in high school doing anything useful.<p>I do think it&#x27;s good to get exposure to computer basics and even programming if they&#x27;re interested.  Maybe, like the article says, it&#x27;s comparable to higher level math and science classes.<p>* I thought it was a bit silly they were teaching Microsoft programs because who knows what would be around 5 years from then--I was wrong about that