Article: Don't teach kids programming

[igr]

Programming is becoming more and more in primary schools. This initiative is recognized all around the world - many kids are being taught programming.

Stop! We're wrong! Do not teach children programming!

The assumption is wrong. What we are doing is observing the present and we notice the rising trend of the need for developers. We extrapolate this fact and base the future on it, with the conclusion that the same rules will apply in 10 or 20 years from now; when our children are going to be old enough to work.

If there is something we do not know, that is the future of the world as it is now. The dynamics of the change in the digital industry is so big that there is no pattern which can be applied to it. The amount of information is being multiplied; requirements change faster than ever. The truth is, we have no idea how the world will look in 20 years. In such an environment, programming, unfortunately, is not a "joker" wildcard that will give the heirs a chance to master the future world.

Moreover, programming IT market is looking for is mercilessly monotonous and stumbling. It's all about the skill; programming today is reduced to the framework timing, and less to the science. Do we really want to include children in such anemic world of programming?

Programming should not have a meaning in itself. Programming should become a tool - in fact, only one of the tools that will be available to people. The technical knowledge, which we boast of and so passionately wish to put into young brains, should not be taken as the primary source of knowledge.

Instead, we need to teach children critical thinking. In a world without censorship, but with false news, a critical attitude is more important than programming patterns.

We need to teach children communication. A world in which everyone has a voice and an opinion about everything requires a precise and clear communication and exchange of ideas and thoughts.

We have to teach children to work together. In a world where there are more screens than people, cooperation becomes a necessary ingredient of progress.

And finally, we have to teach the children creativity. Creativity is a part of the human definition. Creativity is something we need to constantly stimulate, now more than ever before, because that is the only way our children will discover new ways how the tomorrow will be functioning.

Do not teach children programming. Teach them that they can and should change their present - that is going to be our future.