Coding is an area of great opportunity for the youth of America as well as anyone with the drive and the time to learn a skill that is in tremendous demand. Unfortunately, so few people in America are capable coders that the skill is confined to a very small subset of the population. Those who do excel as coders and programmers are often stereotyped as being less social or "geeky" by mainstream pop culture. The reality, of course, is that coders are the unsung rock stars of our time. They build the technologies that power the world we live in. And we need many more of them.
Code.org is an organization that is dedicated to educating people about coding - and perhaps more importantly - about the need for coding. Even an entry-level understanding of certain coding languages is enough to get a high-paying job in many companies in the U.S. With a demonstrable ability to understand and learn various types of code, a jobseeker is exponentially more likely to get a job than if he or she didn’t possess any coding background.
And yet, even with such glaring needs and obvious deficiencies in available talent, very few educational systems recognize computer programming and coding as important elements of elementary and secondary education. Obviously, programming and coding courses are plentiful at the college level, but very few students arrive with the requisite background to succeed in high-level technology majors at the collegiate level.
In a Reddit AMA yesterday, Code.org co-founder Ali Partovi summed it up as follows: "For young people: coding teaches you how to think, it unlocks creativity, and builds confidence. It's an amazing feeling for a young boy or girl to realize, 'If I don't like something, I can change it. If I wish I had something, I can create it.' This sense of empowerment is valuable no matter what path you choose in life."
Code.org is an organization that is dedicated to educating people about coding - and perhaps more importantly - about the need for coding. Even an entry-level understanding of certain coding languages is enough to get a high-paying job in many companies in the U.S. With a demonstrable ability to understand and learn various types of code, a jobseeker is exponentially more likely to get a job than if he or she didn’t possess any coding background.
And yet, even with such glaring needs and obvious deficiencies in available talent, very few educational systems recognize computer programming and coding as important elements of elementary and secondary education. Obviously, programming and coding courses are plentiful at the college level, but very few students arrive with the requisite background to succeed in high-level technology majors at the collegiate level.
In a Reddit AMA yesterday, Code.org co-founder Ali Partovi summed it up as follows: "For young people: coding teaches you how to think, it unlocks creativity, and builds confidence. It's an amazing feeling for a young boy or girl to realize, 'If I don't like something, I can change it. If I wish I had something, I can create it.' This sense of empowerment is valuable no matter what path you choose in life."