Naturally and intuitively you would think that coding is just for coders. Who could blame you since only coders code right? That’s an obvious assumption, but you’d be incorrect in making this assumption. Everybody can code now! And actually everybody should learn to code now!
At theCoderSchool, the goal is to help teach coding to all kids. That’s right, “All” kids. We are not just trying to teach kids that want to major in computer science in college or only those that want to work as a software developer when they grow up. The target is absolutely all kids. We believe that all kids will benefit from learning to think like a coder.
Language Agnostic
The key is to be language agnostic. Don’t focus on forcing your child to learn a particular language such as java or any other language. The better thing to focus on is teaching them to improve their logic and problem solving skills and to think like a coder. The logic skills that they learn can forever be utilized, whereas the nuances of a particular language that are learned may end up useless. It’s quite likely that any language they’re learning now will be defunct by the time they’re in college or in the workplace. There’s certainly not a lot of value in knowing the syntax of Pascal or FORTRAN which are two of the languages that I learned at a young age. The more important learning is what comes to mind when presented with a problem such as “How would you write a program to write out all prime numbers from 1 to 100?”. The logic that enters your mind is what’s critical and can be employed in any language, and even a new language that hasn’t been invented yet.The logic to solve the prime number problem will always remain the same. It’s the languages that will keep changing, so no reason to focus on a particular language as a young child. Learning to code is not about memorization of the nuances of a coding language, but rather learning logic skills and how to solve problems. Now that we know this, we can better understand why coding isn’t just for coders. And of course why learning to code would benefit anyone.
Sports
Learning to code will improve a child’s ability to solve problems. This can be helpful in places that are not so obvious. For example, it can help kids with sports. Beyond the physical skills needed to play a sport, many times sporting events are decided by the mental toughness of the athletes. By learning to think like a coder, children learn to solve problems which is a skill they can use when strategizing their X’s and O’s even in sports. They will be better equipped to change their strategy to fix something that is not working.
Personal Life
A second not so obvious example is that learning to code can help children dealing with personal problems too. It teaches them to never panic and how to break large problems down into smaller ones that can be solved one at a time. It also teaches them that if they’re persistent and keep solving the smaller problems eventually a very large problem can be handled and solved. This same mentality will also without a doubt help them when dealing with personal problems completely unrelated to coding.
Financially
A third example is that in the workplace, those that have learned to code will on average make more. “Jobs requiring coding skills pay $22,000 more than positions that don’t, and the demand for employees with such skills is expected to grow 12 percent faster than the overall job market during the next decade.” according to Burning Glass Technologies. The findings from market research firm Burning Glass Technologies also shows nearly 7 million job openings in the U.S. required coding skills last year, representing 20 percent of the total market for “career-track” jobs. Coding is quickly becoming a necessity in positions outside the tech industry that never used to require it, including finance, manufacturing, health care, and art design. It’s getting tougher and tougher to escape.
Summary
In summary, I have to refer back to the title itself. Simply put, coding isn’t just for coders! It
truly is for and will benefit anyone that learns it no matter what professional field they are
targeting. As always, if you need some help or guidance in learning to code, don’t hesitate to utilize one of our Code Coaches®.
