[linguae]

I wrote my first program when I was nine years old. It was a very simple quiz written in QBASIC on my parent’s PC running Windows 95. I loved programming as a kid, and 26 years later, I still do.

There’s more to life than career preparation, and what I find joyous about programming is the feeling you get when you create something. Programming is a fantastic, flexible creative medium. You can create all sorts of interesting things with code. This is what excited me about programming as a kid, and this is what still excites me.

Even if all our jobs disappear through automation, outsourcing, or other forces beyond our control, I still find computers interesting, and I still find programming creative. Even if my programs have no economic value, I still get joy out of making my computers do things, and I also get joy out of figuring out how to convert vague English into solid logic.

So, teaching students programming is like teaching students music and art. Most students who study music are not going to become Wayne Shorter-level composers or make Kenny G-levels of money, but they learn more about a medium that brings joy to people. We have been fortunate to work in a field where JavaScript creates multi-billion dollar enterprises, but even if we made nothing but smiles, I’d say it’s still worthwhile.