Children pick up computer skills much faster than adults. If allowed to explore and learn coding skills with age-appropriate software, they may grow up to do great things.
The title of a Lifehacker article, “How and Why to Teach Your Kids to Code,” is quite amusing. As any computer-owning parent can attest, the title should read, “How and Why to Let Your Kids Teach You to Code.” The author, Melanie Pinola, seems to understand this.
Learning to code is not just about learning to build and refine websites. It is about learning to use logic and “if, then” statements. Kids create strategies and develop problem-solving skills while learning to code. They learn how to design projects and communicate their ideas to others who may contribute to the project. Learning to code also teaches higher mathematical skills such as understanding variables and conditionals. Kids learn to think through various scenarios that might happen instead of focusing on the single outcome they are hoping for.
We might say that learning to code teaches people how to think creatively and with elastic minds. Children often do this naturally; it is adults who are most likely to need to be reminded to take all possibilities into account. Learning to code prevents kids from losing the ability to think “outside the box.”
Kids don’t have to grow up to be computer scientists to benefit from learning to code. The lessons, skills, and ways of thinking learned while coding are useful for people who end up in any occupation. The ability to think creatively, communicate ideas well, and think things through to a logical conclusion make employees and entrepreneurs valuable in almost any working situation.
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