
Ask HN: Long term effect of British children being taught programming? - tomx
The UK government are introducing programming lessons into British schools: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16509298<p>Does anyone have any opinions on how this may affect the programming landscape of the UK in the future (say, 5-10 years from now)?<p>I thought it might be interesting to consider how such a scheme may change code quality, employment prospects, programming language prevalence, the number of programmers and so on.
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ayers
I don't really think that programming is something that ever kid needs to
learn. IT fundamentals certainly, but I am not sure programming is something
that is a necessity in life. If it is just an optional subject then that is
different.

I was going to say that years down the line it might impact on the ability to
get programming jobs as everyone will "know" how to programme. Upon reflection
I don't think this will be the case though. People need to enjoy a subject to
choose it as their vocation. Being taught something at school doesn’t equate
to people wanting to make it their profession. Compulsory (if it is) exposure
to programming at school at such an early age might captivate people whom
might not be exposed to it otherwise. So the number of programmers might
increase slightly but I doubt the numbers would be noticeable in the job
market.

As for quality; it will only be as good as the teaching resources that are put
together. At the moment the quality of different teaching institutes vary so
much. I don't think it will have a noticeable impact on the overall quality of
new programmers. I could be wrong though :)

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LarryMade
Well in the 80s many of us got an introduction to programming with
BASIC/PASCAL/Logo/etc. many didn't do anything with it, though there are a
good number that can attest that that education put them in the tech industry.

So I think like most other school vocational classes, it gives the students
exposure to the concept, which might let them pursue a career or not - or at
the very least be understanding about the technology and/or process..

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chris_dcosta
That's probably because we all wanted to be pop-stars in the 80s. I did
anyway...

Today you only have to look at Youtube to see 12 year old kids doing
professional level programming presentations to know that programmers _are_
the new pop-stars. They spend ages in their bedrooms practicing their
programming and showing the world through screencasts.

The vast majority of these have american accents and whilst it's difficult to
know where anyone is from a film, I'm guessing the UK lags behind somewhat but
this decision is a very timely one.

