Thoughts on programming in school

It is quite common to use a computer in classroom nowadays, even in Kindergarten. Young kids often know the basics, how to move the mouse, open the computer, play a game etc. But we could go beyond this by adding programming in our educational programs.

Why? There are a lot of reasons. Kids are already consumers of tech and it is at least pleasant to be an active producer. Moreover, through programming children develop computation thinking skills, such as logical thinking, expressing a task in a clear, precise way, breaking down a problem into components and tackling them one at a time, resilience through spotting and fixing problems and collaboration skills.

Joke time: A programmer is going to the supermarket and is told: “Buy a pint of milk, and if there are eggs, buy a dozen.” The programmer goes to the supermarket, buys everything, and drives back to his house. Upon arrival, he is angrily asked “Why did you get 12 pints of milk?” The programmer says, “Because they had eggs!”.

If you don’t get this joke, stay tuned. I will explain to you what an algorithm and coding are and with a little bit of luck you ‘ll chuckle.