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Coding for kids is all the rage these days, but sometimes there’s an expectation that learning to code is scientific, rigorous, and static, but that’s far from the truth. \u00a0Coding isn’t about memorizing commands, or repetitive muscle memory, it’s about a way of thinking, a way to build something creatively using elements in your tool belt. \u00a0In that way, learning to code is more like learning music than learning math or science.<\/p>\n
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If you listen to rock songs closely these days, you might be surprised to learn that a large number of them are made up of the same basic 4 chords<\/a>. \u00a0Yet to the untrained ear, those songs sound vastly different, because of the how the chords are played, the lyrics, the rhythm, and all the other creative elements that make up a song. \u00a0Coding is no different. \u00a0While you’ll have similar foundational elements like variables, loops, and even design patterns, how the rest of the app is pieced together requires plenty of creativity to bring out its identity. \u00a0Just like Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin<\/a>\u00a0is based on the same chords as the Beatle’s Let It Be<\/a>, apps like Candy Crush use the same basic coding elements as a completely different application like Facebook. \u00a0But just like their musical counterparts, applications rely on the creativity of the developer and how the pieces are put together, more than the formulaic elements that form the core.<\/p>\n Quick, who’s a better musician, Yo Yo Ma or Jimi Hendrix? \u00a0Miles Davis or Jay Z? \u00a0There’s no right answer (just awesome debates!), because they all play different kinds of music. \u00a0Coding is the same way – there’s basics for everyone to learn, but after that, should a student learn Websites? \u00a0Mobile apps? \u00a0Data Analytics? \u00a0Like musicians, coders often are exposed to a number of different styles (i.e., technologies) as they advance, in no particular order. \u00a0And when they’re advanced enough, they may dig deeper into one or another “style”. \u00a0At theCoderSchool we often use a tree as analogy to learning to code<\/a> – every tree grows differently, but they’re all rooted in the same foundation.<\/p>\n When students practice music (or sports, or some forms of math and science), it’s really about repetition. \u00a0HOW to do something (“put your fingers here”, or “keep your elbow in when you shoot”, or “9 x 9 = 81”) is usually the easy part. \u00a0How to do it quickly and smoothly (“play A then G”, “keep your shooting form in the game”) is often what takes practice.\u00a0 It’s the repetition that makes up the practice, which turns into muscle memory.<\/p>\n Coding is vastly different – it’s not muscle memory, it’s a way of thinking. \u00a0Unlike music or sports, figuring out HOW to do something (what code to write) is actually the hard part. \u00a0Once the code is written, repeating it for “practice” doesn’t make sense because it already works! \u00a0Typing it in again won’t make it work any better. \u00a0And the next app may be completely different. Instead, practice is about identifying and reusing patterns of logic, ways of solving a problem (sometimes known as “Design Patterns” in software-speak). \u00a0Each app built by a student is a new and different problem to solve, with potentially multiple solutions, so the more apps a student builds, the more practice they get thinking in a certain way.<\/p>\n For many students, this can be harder than you might think. \u00a0With music, tell a student where to put their fingers and they can go home and repeatedly play that chord until they know it by heart. \u00a0With coding, once a student solves one problem, they’re faced with the next, and often have trouble solving it without help until they’ve practiced solving the problems enough to be able to solve the next problem on their own.<\/p>\n While there’s a few differences, by and large I would argue that learning to code is much more like learning music or sports than it is like learning science or math. \u00a0The other big difference is that there’s a much bigger shortage of coders than there are of musicians or athletes. \u00a0So whatcha waiting for? \u00a0Let’s get coding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What’s it like to learn to code? Is it like learning science, or math like many parents traditionally assume? Or is it more like learning music? If you’ve read this far, you’ve guessed our answer – it’s a lot more like music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coder-blog","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecoderschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecoderschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecoderschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecoderschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecoderschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecoderschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12220,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecoderschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions\/12220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecoderschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecoderschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecoderschool.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Coding Has No Pre-Determined Path<\/h1>\n
“Practice” Is Different – but Just as Important<\/h1>\n
Coding’s like Music<\/h1>\n