Very recently I had a colleague mention that students should learn coding much as one would learn a second language. At first I liked the analogy. A second language is something that can be valuable, but is ultimately optional. Which is largely how I view coding. But something about it seemed forced and seemed to give coding a higher platform than I like to give it most days. After a little soul-searching I came up with with the premise of this post. Coding is a tool that should be taught as a trade.
Computer code is pervasive. The average american citizen comes into a contact with a computer, running code, dozens of times a day. (And for those with Facebook, hundreds of times). This has helped perpetuate the illusion, yes Illusion, that code has a higher value than other components of life. But exposure does not translate to value. After all, most only eat 3 times a day, and drink a few glasses of water. While not as pervasive as code, food and water seem to be slightly more important. And yet we do not promote plumbers and farming. We don't even promote basic home maintenance and cooking. But coding is a requirement to "keep up with the world" and should be taught in schools, and cooking is not.
In this way coding is much like a language. You may learn a coding language just as a second language. But the value is not in the language that you speak, but in the fact that you are able to speak and therefore communicate information. The value of coding is not in the language you learn to code in, but in the fundamental problem-solving skills that coding requires.
But those skills exist in literally everything. The algorithm for turning a piece of work on a lathe to create a vase is no different from the algorithm for picking the lowest price from a database. (Seriously, they are both optimization search problems with one WHILE and an IF statement.) The question is if the individual is able to plan out that algorithm and identify what is needed to make it work. This is why coding is a tool. It is a method of building, testing and demonstrating problem-solving, in a medium that is, frankly, cheaper than wood or metal shop.
Coding is also hyped because it seems like the future We love to imagine and theorize about the future, and more code is definitely in that future. The trouble is you don't get robots and flying cars from programmers alone. You need machinists and mechanical engineers, people who don't always connect with code. But the simple fact that Code is a cheap means of teaching problem solving gives it the advantage over wood or metal shop in the classroom. But that limits the number of people that can engage in learning problem-solving to create things, and creates a glut of STEM brains creating code for the next Facebook instead of designs for the next spaceship. This has lead to sayings such as "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters" by Peter Theil, billionaire lawyer cofounder of Paypal, Palantir, and Founder's Fund, major investor in SpaceX, and advocate of skipping college in favor of just creating something.
If you like coding, great. It is certainly useful and integral to our world. But I also say, if you like business, great. It is certainly useful and integral to our world. I also say if you like fixing cars, great. It is certainly useful and integral to our world.
The thing that makes a person valuable is not the specific tools that they use in their career. Whether it be code, CAD, or a wrench. It is how well they understand and utilize those tools, and what they can build with them inside of the real world. But to say that code should somehow get the emphasis, is simply wrong. Every twitter programmer has to come home to a house. And someone is going to have to design and build the plumbing on Mars. Programming is simply a trade, just like any other trade.
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At first I thought I would be able to collect my thoughts on STEM education all in one post. After several hours of work I realized that that would not be possible. So there will be a few more most like this to follow in the next few weeks. I apologize ahead of time.
