For those who have watched movie ‘The Imitation Game’ or know about about Alan Turing, would understand the important role ‘programming’ played in World War II. Since then, its importance has only continued to increase, so much so, that now kids as young as 8 years old are being told to learn programming as a necessary ‘life skill’. At Glearnr, we both agree and disagree with this logic.

The reason we agree is simple. Technology is the future and computer programming will become an important job creator in times to come. However, we strongly disagree with the approach which some of the institutes are adopting to. Children are being given plug and play programming modules allowing them to create apps and games while they fail to understand the geometry. To help you understand this better, let us ask you a question. “Were you given a calculator to solve maths problems in Class I or Class V or even Class IX?”. Most of you would answer No.

And this is precisely the reason we disagree with this plug and play approach of teaching programming. I met a parent recently who said,

“I don’t want my child to memorise that 40 times 2 is 80, rather he should know that 4 times 2 is 8 and then be able solve for 40 times 2 from there.”

It is indeed a powerful thought and a very relevant one in current times, where ‘institutes’ like to create a ‘FOMO’ in order to sell costly courses to parents.

To help you decide whether programming classes make sense for kids, let us know dive a bit deeper into what programming really is. At a primitive level you can break programming into two independent functional pieces:

1. Algorithms: Algorithms are the sequence of steps needed to solve a particular problem
2. Syntax / Language: Language refers to the programming language which helps communicate the Algorithm to a computer

While both (A) and (B) are important, any good programmer will weigh importance of understanding Algorithms over knowledge of Syntax.

When you speak to ‘coding institutes’ about importance of coding for kids, they will most likely quote the importance of understanding algorithms (obviously, without saying so). Creativity, problem solving, collaboration, communication etc. are generally associated with ability to solve problems through algorithms.

Algorithms require kids to break down a problem into solvable parts, solve the individual elements and then collate the separate solution into a single workable algorithm. ‘Problem Solving Approach’ is essentially the first step to learn programming which a lot of times is getting lost due to heavy commercialization of ‘coding classes’.

So, the next question would be, isn’t algorithm alone sufficient. The answer from our side would be ‘no’. In order, to fully grasp the power of learning problem solving kids need to see ‘magic happen’. It is when kids can see ‘Hello World’ on the screen, that they will realise the power of programming as well importance of a structured approach to problem solving. Ability to program and see results of their efforts also closes the learning loop ensuring better retention.

To conclude, as a parent, we have two pieces of advice for you before you make your kid join any coding class:

1. Understand if the focus is on problem solving and creating solutions. Typical teaching methodology includes heavy use of Flow Charts for creating algorithm
2. Understand if the programming language taught is not just plug and play but requires actual writing of code

And only once you are comfortable with both of the above should you enrol your kid in that online coding class.