You make a good point there. School has an unfortunate habit of wrecking interest in a subject by demanding levels-beyond-perfection.
Got the right answer? Still wrong. Why? Didn’t show your work.
Engaging essay and very thoughtful, but your spelling was atrocious and your handwriting poor, so there’s a C.
I won’t even go into what they did to me and art. Still haven’t recovered a sense of capability in drawing and I know exactly WHEN, WHO, and what happened, and saw the same thing happen to my ne two years ago when he was 8 with HIS teacher and his drawing.
_IF_ it’s done correctly, programming education in school *could* be an excellent thing: but really, the resources are _available_ everywhere. Gamers learn programming on their own by wanting to hack their game first. Then they get curious and want to make a mod. Then they want to make games themselves.
It’s a normal progression. hacking, modifying, then programming.
Can’t teach that kind of curiosity. It’s a process I’ve seen over and over again but the interest has to be genuinely internal, not imposed by an external authority.
But in my mind, one of the best models for learning is Summerhill. Maybe it wasnt’ perfect either, but the learner-directed learning I think is the best.
Standardized curriculum is fine for certain things I suppose, but really, they’re doing school wrong. They’ve done it wrong for 150 years. They’re STILL doing it wrong and it still pisses me off.
Besides, there will be a glut of programmers without jobs available… much like today.
There’s only so many programs, so many computers, so many things that need programming.
I’m all for job-training in schools if it’s optional. I also think basics of algorithms are a good thing to learn. I wouldn’t be who I was if I didn’t learn programming young.
I learned it on my own though. I knew more than the school did. Kids are supposed to know SOME THINGS more than their teachers – otherwise they’re just in a continual oppressed state.
The “geek/nerd/focused” DRIVE that makes programming interesting. You can’t teach that into people. They have to get it on their own – have it already – have the impetus.. the desire.
Can school inspire that? Maybe. Maybe a good teacher. There’s always a good teacher somewhere.
But it’s more likely they’ll screw it up. How many kids hate math that loved it when they were little? A lot of them. They teach math completely wrong.
Ok, I’m not going to rant further, but yeah, this is one of my ‘rant’ issues: schools destroying innate creativity and drive.
[responsivevoice_button voice="US English Male"]