Anyone Can Code...

Tags: Other, Programming

Every time I hear the "everybody can/should/has to code" line...

...I have to think about what was said at the end of the animated movie Ratatouille by the character Anton Ego, the food critic:  

In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, "Anyone can cook." But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist *can* come from *anywhere*.   

Replace cook with code. And artist with programmer.

This is where the opportunity is lost: by making everything as simplistic as possible with drag and drop UI etc., you take away the actual recipe to what programming really is, what makes it fun, what makes it worth doing. Not only will this give the wrong idea to kids, it will needlessly hide this recipe from those that have the potential to be great. It's like taking a can of "Chef Boyardee" ravioli, heating it in a microwave, sprinkling cheese on top and calling it cooking.

I'm not saying these tools have no place, but they can't be the center of focus, just like a single color can't be the center of focus when painting.

Parallels can be drawn with how math is taught in school. I recommend you read: Paul Lockhart's 'A Mathematicians Lament':

https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf