Programming or history?
Monday, October 19, 2015 at 06:19AM Before he left office last month, Australia’s education minister Christopher Pyne approved a new curriculum that made the teaching of programming central. No longer will students be required to learn history or geography. Audrey Watters
I’ve always been a bit skeptical of the need for all students to learn to program (See A Little Steamed about STEM, August 11, 2014.) So when I read the note about about Australia dropping history and geography for computer programming, I shuddered a little. Or maybe a lot.
As the happy product of a liberal arts curriculum K-18, I tend to take the view that the purpose of education is, as Sydney Harris reminds us, “to make one’s mind a pleasant place in which to spend one’s leisure.” That is perhaps a bit glib, but I cannot but hope education is more than simply vocational training. That we learn not just so we can feed our bodies and house our families, but that we also learn so we can nourish our souls and better our communities.
Proponents will argue that in learning to code, children will learn a systematic way of thinking. Sort of an if/then understanding of the world. I suppose some of this is good. It may well entice more girls and culturally-diverse students into the computer science field. I can't say that my one semester hour of basic programming class in grad school or my three semester hour class in Logo programming post graduation has added immeasurably to the quality of my internal life nor vocational possibilities, but they didn't hurt and weren't the worst things I've ever been asked to do.
But to mandate computer programming seems to me to be the same as mandating Latin (it encourages systematic thinking as well when deal with cases and genders); auto-mechanics (it builds an understanding of what goes on under the hood); or calculus (sorry, I can’t think of a single reason why everyone should know calculus).
Justifying history and geography and probably literature is probably as difficult for those with a science/math bent that understanding programming needs is for me. My experience that the social sciences and arts expand one’s knowledge of and appreciation for humanity is not universally shared and as impossible to empirically demonstrate as measuring the efficacy of prayer, knocking on wood, or positive thinking.
Here's the thing. Why do we feel to need to mandate a single set of skills for every student? A single definition of "cultural literacy" or "real-world ready" or "21st century skills." The world is an amazingly complex place which no one has the ability to master completely. We are and will continue to be codependent on the specific skill sets of others.
Let kids and adults and families choose what things they need to know to be educated. You can ask me about Dostoyevsky if I can ask you about binomials. Deal?
Reader Comments (4)
I'm part of the crowd that thinks that all students should learn some programming ...but not at the expense of history or geography! I think that a good 2015 Liberal Arts Education should include history, geography, literature, foreign language ...and programming, robotics, physics, etc. (Art, Music, too!) I don't think that everyone needs to be an expert programmer, but that every student should have a basic understanding and experience. In this day & age where Facebook brings down regimes, teenagers become millionaires publishing apps, and major news stories are about "metadata" and "encryption," then any well educated citizen should understand algorithms and how to make the omnipresent machines do their bidding.
That said, I also think that the best statement on the whole topic was Grant Wiggins, in his article "A Diploma Worth Having." It seems reasonable to ask, "What exactly do we think that students should know and be able to do in order to be considered properly educated?"
The biggest operational issue as some bang the drum for programming in schools is having teachers who know it well enough to teach it. My current employer was lucky to hire a bright and energetic math teacher who is about to sew up his computer science license. I feel 100% confident our students are learning from someone who knows what they are doing. A former employer had folks teaching it who didn't have a clue, but got the certification 20 years ago. Those kids weren't getting much support. Even if it's delivered online, there has to be someone on the other end helping those students through the learning...
Our governor in WI likes to talk about increasing access to computer programming, but there are maybe a handful that WI produces every year. A handful might be an overstatement.
Hi John,
Good to hear from you. How's life in Addis? Thanks again for the opportunity to visit that beautiful and interesting place.
This is a tough one. There just seems to be so much more kids need to know and be able to do that when I was a kid. I will give the Wiggins article a read. I have great respect for him (and you).
All the best,
Doug
Hi Nathan,
You mean all your Wisconsin elementary teachers are not competent coders themselves? I am shocked! How did they ever get hired?
Doug
I feel like we have a day a year where folks stop what they're doing and play Scratch and now we think because that day is fun we should have it for 180 days for all kids. It's more than creating a Hello World program...