Coding for the kids

There has been some discussion lately here and also abroad (see Oct 2013 Wired and the president of Estonia for BBC news) on whether kids should be taught computer programming already during the first years at elementary school, or even in kindergarten. I don't know about the latter, but definitely programming languages should be easier to grasp than any natural language due to the more limited syntax and vocabulary, so if a 7 year-old can figure out the basics of a foreign language, programming shouldn't be any harder.

Myself I was introduced to coding with Sinclair ZX81, and since my dad had bought only the computer and not any programs, the only option was to either type in a program from a magazine or book - or to write it yourself. I was about nine years old at that time, I think. Come on, writing BASIC is like writing English, which I was introduced to at school around the same time.

Of course not all kids (neither when they are young nor when they grow up) need to get deep into coding, but I have to agree with writer Elina Lappalainen and Ilkka Paananen of Supercell (both in Talouselämä 38/2013) on that knowing the basics of how computers are made to work is something that can be of incredible benefit later on as dealing with computers has become so everyday thing that it would take an effort to not to use any for even a single day. I've long been thinking that the fact that buyers in software projects don't actually know anything about what software really is (or how it is made) is one big reason for why software projects go as they tend to go (i.e. badly). If they had had a peek at how things operate within computers in school, things might have been different later on.

After all, I think kids are still today taught in Finnish elementary schools the basics of handicraft (both with wood and textiles) and cooking, not to mention sports and arts, why shouldn't we be teaching them also something about computers - it would be potentially just as important for their future.