Why Johnny Can’t Program | Garfield Computer Science

Why Johnny Can’t Program

posted by: Ms. Martin 3 October 2010 3 Comments

Read the article Why Jonny Can’t Program: A New Medium Requires A New Literacy.

Think about the following things:

The author mentions several problems with Americans generally not knowing how software works. In your opinion, which is the biggest threat?
How can this problem be addressed?
Why do you think some consider programming a “menial skill to be outsourced to developing nations”?
Should programming be a required high school discipline? How would your friends react?

Please comment here!

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3 Comments

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My first thought, which I still think is true, is that if you’re complaining about how people in the US can use computers but can’t program, you should really find something better to complain about.

Nonetheless, I see his point, and programming is a really really valuable skill. I find myself disagreeing that it should be required for high schoolers, though, for the simple reason that not everyone will or should grow up to program as an adult. An aspiring painter will probably not want to learn code. (If I were in charge of the world, this also applies to most other school classes, like AP Macroeconomics or Ceramics or Gym (guess who hasn’t turned in their waver yet! (Nested parens! I hope I’m giving you flashbacks)))

However: Programming, more and more today, -does- seem to be useful in a variety of jobs (say, pretty much all sciences). At the least, it ought to be offered on the same level that, say, painting is. I would imagine that far more people benefit from taking a programming class, then a painting class.

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Georgia on October 4, 2010 at 11:01 am

I agree with Georgia, programming is definitely something that is important, but it shouldn’t be required. Requiring people to take programming would be tough, especially with the number of extracurriculars we have to take already.

Also, we do need to know more about the programs we’re using, rather than just using them. Otherwise we’re just ignorant and oblivious slaves to the man, right?

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Grant on October 5, 2010 at 9:50 am

I could write the exact same article and substitute in Chemistry, Trigonometry and Calculus. Now that we have powerful computers and calculators, we are taught how to press buttons instead of understanding what those buttons do! Real learning is scarce in all technical fields in high school not to any fault of the teachers, but because the curriculum is targeted towards manufacturing employees.

I think the article does not give me, a student, the benefit of the doubt. I know very well that everything that is “free” on the internet is actually for advertising profit (except .edu). The part about the military is startling, and I have noticed through talking and meeting with people at software companies that there are a LOT of software developers who were born outside of the US.

Georgia, I have to disagree with you: art can be very meaningful and provide a great career for talented artists. Im going to say right now is is more difficult to make true art than to make true code. Even if we dont like it, lets not hate on art class.

There, I did the reading and the comment Ms. Martin

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AJ on October 5, 2010 at 8:15 pm

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