Why learn coding at a young age?
Why coding for kids?
Did you ever think about how the world would look like without computers, without programming, and without any smartphone devices? You’re right. It’s hard to imagine our world without the programming and automatization that is so prevalent and widespread in the 21st century.
Occupations vanish while others appear:
Research shows that many occupations, such as: bank tellers, medical secretaries, insurance agents, will disappear from the world in the next few decades. Also,it is obvious to everyone that in the upcoming decades, we will need programmers who can develop more and more programs. Researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne investigated which occupations are going to disappear because of automatization. Among others, they found that the occupations of brokers, bank tellers, receptionists, and secretaries, are all in danger of extinction. In fact, 47% of those employed in the United States today, are working in jobs with a problematic future. Therefore, knowledge of coding (programming) can definitely help tomorrow’s adults to cope with this problem that is on the horizon.
If so, is it worth it to start during childhood? Or should we wait and teach programming only to mature adults? Research has shown that entering the world of programming at an early age encourages and develops the students’ skills. These skills are not only important to programming, but to their adult lives.
Here are some of the advantages that children who learn programming acquire:
A world without boundaries
Learning the field of coding encourages kids and develops creativity. For every single program, you can come up with a number of different solutions in a variety of ways. Also, writing an application requires only an idea, knowledge, and a computer. Therefore, it allows developers to realize their creativity in an almost unlimited fashion. Let’s take the example of a smart and simple application, like Safie. Safie is an advanced application that lets you know exactly where your children are. All you have to do is put in their phone numbers and download the application. And like we said, all you needed to create Safie was an idea, knowledge, and a computer.
From a vision to reality
Young children understand at a relatively early stage that it is important to plan ahead in order to achieve their goals more easily. Not only that, they also understand that sometimes, without prior planning, it is difficult and almost impossible to achieve your goals. The methodological and linear work that programming requires instills in children excellent work habits and improves their abilities.
Trial and error
The tests that children run to find out why a certain program is not working, or why it is not working as they planned, develop their research abilities. Skills like these will be good for them later on, when they do different types of research projects in other subjects, such as science, geography, and literature.
Nothing stands in the way of a strong will
A positive first experience with programming will connect to a child’s positive feelings. Even if they decide, in the far-off future, to work in a different field, they won’t do it because they are afraid of the difficulties or the roadblocks that they encountered previously. On the contrary, they will already have a feeling of being able to succeed, that they have acquired earlier on.It is obvious and unnecessary to explain that all of these advantages will help the children in other areas of their lives.
In the United States and also in Israel, we have fallen behind in the field of programming for children. In countries like China, Estonia, and Vietnam, children learn to program from the time they are in elementary school. Several years ago, the president of the United States, Barack Obama, during the national Hour of Code events, said: “Don’t buy a computer game, develop one; don’t download the new application, help develop it; don’t play with your telephone – program it.” Today, it is easy to see that every field has been enriched by technology. It is obvious that the earlier students start to learn programming, the more successful they will be.
Prepare your children for the future – Teach them how to code
It’s worth mentioning that different researches throughout the world show that programming is a kind of a new alphabet. According to the researchers, programming is another ability that we need to acquire and know how to apply, together with the other abilities that we have and that exist for us in the 21st century. In this era, it is up to us to learn skills like mathematics and coding along with softer skills like interpersonal communications and literature. It’s important to remember that the entire world is moving forward and developing. The devices of today and tomorrow offer us more and more opportunities to program them. It may very well be that in another fifteen years, those who do not know how to “talk” to the devices around them and to tell them what they want from them, will be seen as slightly illiterate, somewhat like our parents’ generation is with the technology of today.
Check out these links:
“Hour of Code” Video (with Barack Obama and other celebreties coding)