| There's a lot of back-and-forth over whether it is easy or not or whether one comparison or another works best. I think it's fine to compare learning to write code with learning to write human language. The best of us will still make mistakes; plenty of us will always be incapable of writing well. Once upon a time the idea that everyone needed to know how to write was laughable. These days, it's arguable how well everyone needs to be able to write, but there's a general agreement that it's worth giving people the opportunity to reach at least a basic level of competency, even if their daily lives require little writing. I had a miserable time learning to write (i.e., failed many assignments) until a few things fell into place, and I saw how writing could be an important part of thinking, learning, feeling, expressing, etc. I had a miserable time learning to code through coursework in highschool and college until a few things fell into place and I saw how code could be an important part of thinking, learning, feeling, expressing, etc. How did/do we sell everyone on trying to learn to write human language? AFAIK, with some superlative rhetoric about how useful/necessary writing can be without much dithering over what portion of the population will ever be good enough to make a living at it. So there are varying levels of irresponsibility when it comes to saying everyone should code. There's probably a big potential social upside to fudging things a little to suggest everyone should learn some programming throughout school; it's much more negligent to tell someone with a boring but stable job to quit and blow a few grand on a coding bootcamp without an inkling that they're prepared. |