Dear Commons Community,

A New York Times article this morning reported that “At a White House gathering of tech titans last week, Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of Apple, delivered a blunt message to President Trump on how public schools could better serve the nation’s needs. To help solve a “huge deficit in the skills that we need today,” Mr. Cook said, the government should do its part to make sure students learn computer programming.

“Coding,” Mr. Cook told the president, “should be a requirement in every public school.”

The Apple chief’s education mandate was just the latest tech company push for coding courses in schools. But even without Mr. Trump’s support, Silicon Valley is already advancing that agenda — thanks largely to the marketing prowess of Code.org, an industry-backed nonprofit group.”

The article goes on to question the motives of the tech company executives as one to make sure they have a ready supply of computer scientists  especially since they have become heavily reliant on foreign engineers.    

I would be cautious about requiring coding in every public school, however, I do think it has a place in our K-12 curriculum.  Just as our colleges over the past forty years have made computer science more available to students either in the form of majors, minors, or integrated into other disciplines, computer science or coding has educational value.  In addition to preparation for our increasingly high-tech world, computer coding at the K-12 level can be designed as a valuable critical thinking and problem-solving activity. It involves logic, organization, and persistence to achieve success in writing a program while adding to an understanding of how a computer functions.  These are desirable skills that schools need to do a better job of developing in young people.

In sum, I think more exposure to computer coding is desirable, however, it does not have to be a requirement in every school.

Tony