The title of this blog post is taken from a question raised in “Computational Thinking Should Just be Good Thinking” by Mark Guzdial, Alan Kay, Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway, published in November 2019 (Vol. 62, No. 11) issue of Communications of ACM.

How do we prepare our children for never-seen-before problems? We might start by redesigning TikTok and Fortnite.

There’s a lot of food for thought and critical questions raised in this short article. It also made me think about my sons: their interaction with all kinds of computers are heavily increasing as expected. My 9-year-old has some interest in programming (Python in particular), and an intensive, intrinsic motivation to explore more of Minecraft (as a creative activity with no bounds) and Roblox (this one is more as a competitive, adrenaline-inducing activity). My 3-year-old is also surrounded with a Smart TV, a tablet, and sometimes gets a sneak peak to his older brother’s digital creations.

Rather than teach computer science as a separate topic that might transfer, we should teach with computational models in every field.

I don’t know how it’ll be for my children in the future, but when I taught computer programming to children and teenagers, I generally tried to do it within the context of another domain, such as music, painting, or secret communications with your friends (cryptography, steganography, etc.) which resulted in good engagement most of the time.

My perspective can be summarized as the following: “computer programming” should not be considered and taught “only as a lucrative career choice“, but rather as a wonderful intellectual & creative activity that carries a lot of potential for empowering people of all ages. Of course there’s nothing wrong to make a career out of it and enjoy a prosperous life, but somehow I think that interpreting such an important educational activity only from a purely professional perspective is rather limiting for human minds in general. I think the article that led to this blog entry and similar research will continue to shed more light on our children’s educational future, and we should take this as an opportunity to contribute to the discussion, even if we’re not professional computer programmers.