| Definitely don't detract from kids getting a chance for physical play, preferably outdoors. That should be an axiom. With that said, I don't think it should necessarily be pushed as a career skill, nor necessarily even as an academic discipline, but why not just for fun? Most "educational" use of computers at the grade school level is a waste of the kids time. I'd rather kids sit in front of Scratch, than some glorified flash cards. Maybe the younger kids are, the less academic it needs to be. For older kids, my view is that computer programming is becoming analogous to a liberal art, i.e., something that every educated person should have been exposed to in order to be an informed member of society, even if they don't pursue it as a profession. My parents took me to music lessons throughout my childhood, for which I'm grateful. They also let me spend a lot of time playing outside. Edit: Kids are under a lot of pressure to choose "careers" before experiencing the subject matter, e.g., in engineering and computer science. Perhaps it would be a service to let the kids who don't like programming, find it out before they hit college. |