Comment by k-mcgrady | Hacker News Reader

Comment by k-mcgrady | Hacker News Reader

A great example of how to take something someone said and make an almost completely BS article from it in order to generate links.

Here is the ACTUAL QUOTE:

"Let’s just understand exactly what the Leader of the Opposition has asked. He said that he wants primary school kids to be taught coding so they can get the jobs of the future. Does he want to send them all out to work at the age of 11? Is that what he wants to do? Seriously? Seriously?"

He didn't say coding was a joke. He simply seems to think that it doesn't need taught to someone that isn't going to take a job that needs it and that at 11 years old your career isn't a concern. Understandable. Maths and English will be required no matter what you go in to. Coding not so much. Coding will teach you useful skills of course but imo you already get these through things like Maths which has a wider application for everyone. Especially for primary school aged kids.

That makes a world of difference. I see his point, I also think 11 is too early to make programming a requirement. I'd prefer to see algorithmic thinking and logic to be introduced earlier as a subtopic of math courses and if using programming as the exercises makes that easier then I think it makes sense to try. How about starting at higher ages and seeing if it can trickle down.

I think that basic coding literacy WILL be required if you want to be fully functional in 10-20 years.

I can't imagine this being the case. You will never need to know how to program, at any point in the future, to use anything anyone else has programmed.

I strongly disagree. We should be making software easier to use and make it require less technical ability. This has been the direction things have been heading for the last 10-20 years and it seems to be accelerating. I see no reason why it should reverse.

Coding can be used to give a context for other skills, logic most obviously but also things like ethics ("When is it right to use the code of others?") and persuasive writing and speaking ("Convince me you have a good program."/"Does this person's claims of having a good program convince you?"). (Persuasive speaking, BTW, is what the ancients called rhetoric, and it's always been part of the liberal education.)

True but why introduce another course and have to train teachers in a new skill set when we can teach these skills through the basic courses that have been taught for decades. It sounds like your plan would introduce complexity where it is not needed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com