everyone from every field is saying this. "public schools should teach more [programming/accounting/nutrition/formal writing/auto mechanic] skills to young kids!". nobody disagrees, because the value seems obvious, but you can't have it all. we are biased because we make our living working intimately with computers, but plenty of people learn exactly as much as they need to know about computers in middle school.
i just think that kids spend enough of their time on regimented learning. nine hours a day plus homework. we should stop inflating the curriculum and leave some of their mental energy in reserve so they can spend it on self-driven freeform learning and hobbies.
I know the curriculum is full. This is why I proposed we remove other stuff.
I do not propose we teach actual programming to kids. Just the fundamentals of computational thinking, for which an introduction to programming may work really well, and I expect 40 hours will be more than enough. Even a couple hours may be enough.
Computers pervade our lives. They're becoming the medium through which we do everything. We'd better learn to control them before they control us (I'm thinking of golden cages like the iStuff, and surveillance/advertising machines like gMail and Facebook).
The printing press allowed the people to read. The internet is allowing the people to write. Such a fundamental change in communication structures is bound to have similarly profound effects. But first, people need to learn to write. School isn't the place for that. So far, my best writing school has been public internet forums. School only taught me the very basics, then went on having me read novels I didn't enjoy. Before 1995, this was fine. Less so now.
i just think that kids spend enough of their time on regimented learning. nine hours a day plus homework. we should stop inflating the curriculum and leave some of their mental energy in reserve so they can spend it on self-driven freeform learning and hobbies.