Ben Forta

I hear this question almost daily now:

“With AI here, should we teach kids to code?”

I was reminded of the following from our book, Captain Code, that teaches coding to kids. The intro asks kids “Why learn to code?”, and the response to them is:

The most common answer is that coding is important because it is a future-ready skill. That means that if you can code you’ll have an easier time finding a good job in the future. And while there may be some truth to that assertion, honestly, we don’t think that that’s the best reason to learn to code. Why?

For starters, not everyone needs to work as a coder. That makes about as much sense as everyone being a doctor, or everyone being a chef, or everyone being a teacher, or everyone being a pilot, or everyone being a plumber running through pipes to save a princess … you get the idea. To function properly society needs lots of different people doing lots of different things. Sorry, but humanity just does not need 8 billion coders.

In addition, the tech space (and that includes coding) changes really quickly. What coders do now is not the same as what they did 10 years ago, and what they’ll do in 10 years will be even more different. That means that what you learn today is not what you’ll be doing as a coder in the future. The best coders never stop learning, evolving, or developing skills. With coding there’s no learn-it-and-done, and it’ll be a mistake to invest time and energy assuming otherwise.

But most importantly, if you’re interested in coding primarily from a future career perspective then it’ll feel like work rather than fun. If it’s not fun then you won’t enjoy it, you’ll be unlikely to stick with it, and you definitely won’t be motivated to really give it your all. And that would be a shame, because coding really is a lot of fun.

So, why should you learn to code? And should everyone do so? We believe everyone should learn to code, even if they have no intentions of pursuing careers in coding. We believe this just like we believe that everyone should draw and sketch, and everyone should cook, and everyone should take pictures and shoot videos, and more. All of these are creative endeavors, which means that they are ways to actually create stuff, and creating stuff is incredibly rewarding and satisfying. Sure, it’s fun to spend hours on your phone looking at what other people have created; but that’s nothing compared to the joy and satisfaction of creating stuff that other people consume and use.

And, on top of that, when you learn to code you develop all sorts of invaluable skills and traits beyond just coding. These include planning, problem solving, communication, logic, empathy, attention to detail, patience, resilience, persistence, and creativity.

Oh, and back to jobs and careers, it turns out that these skills (especially creativity and creative problem solving) are some of the most in-demand out there. So, yes, coding will indeed help your future career, even if you don’t become a coder.