Why Children Should Learn To Program

Learning to program stimulates creativity, teamwork and problem solving. “studies show: children who study computer science perform better in other subjects, excel at problemsolving, and are 17% more likely to attend college.”

A computer programmer basically tells a computer what to do. Computer programmers write algorithms, or a set of instructions, that the computer will follow. Programming is the gateway to the virtual world, where the only limit is ones imagination.

But why is it so important for children to learn to program?

In the midst of globalization, and as our world becomes more reliant on technology, programming will quickly become a fundamental skill for today’s generation of children. In the same way that our schools teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, our digital natives must learn the language of this era, which is coding.

Professions that traditionally didn’t involve technology and coding, will become increasingly dependent, to a greater or lesser extent, on technology. A mastery of technology, or at least a digital competence, will be required for almost any professional. Gaining competence can only be achieved through adequate scientific and technological education.

A knowledge of programming is not only essential in the United States of America, it is essential globally. More than 2,000,000 jobs in Europe have a technical or STEM profile (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). In Spain alone, more than 800,000 technological jobs are expected to remain unfilled.

Benefits for young minds

These are some of the reasons why it is important for our children to learn to program.It helps to understand how the devices we use everyday work. Computers work in a certain way, following certain processes. Learning to program helps to understand how the devices and programs we use on a daily basis work. By discovering how technology works, you can better understand all of its possibilities.

“Everyone in this country should learn to program, because it teaches you to think”
Steve Jobs

They learn to think. By learning to program, children acquire skills that are essential to logical thinking, problem solving and trouble shooting. Such skills lend themselves to any discipline and carry over to every day challenges, whether inside or outside the classroom. Programming also encourages critical thinking.
In 1995, Steve Jobs said “Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer…. Because it teaches you how to think.”

To program, it is necessary to develop computational thinking. Computational thinking is a kind of logical thinking that structures the mind and orders ideas. It allows an individual to break a big problem into smaller problems.

It develops creativity. When programming, one routinely creates something out of nothing. Learning to program allows an individual to take an idea and develop it. Programming allows an individual to develop a though, in one’s imagination, and bring it to life. Programming leads to advances in engineering, medicine, music, etc. The sky is the limit.

“Coding is the closest thing we have to a superpower” – Drew Houston, Founder of Dropbox

It’s a playful way to learn. It allows children to experiment, share, reason and understand how things are made. Children can make their own creations! By learning to program, they go from being mere spectators to creators. To achieve optimal learning, the brain needs to be excited to learn.

Promotes teamwork. Programming helps in decision-making and teamwork, since programming relies on collaborative work in which each child plays a role and contributes something to the others.

“We live immersed in a digital reality that conditions our lives in almost all areas, controlled by software, through programmable objects. In this context, being able to handle the language of computers emerges as an indispensable skill, a new literacy, which allows us to participate fully and effectively in the digital reality that surrounds us: it’s about programming or being programmed, about being app-enabled or app dependent.”

Programming is simple. From a very young age, children have become accustomed to living with digital tools, video games, etc. They are digital natives. Your child doesn’t need to be a genius, you will be surprised how quickly children learn the basic concepts of programming.

There are numerous apps that allow children to enter the world of programming in an attractive and fun way, offering them the opportunity to gain knowledge that will undoubtedly open many doors for them in the future.

We want to empower our children to be the next generation of creators, developers, and inventors. Will you join us? Enroll your child in our after-school program.

We invite you to visit our facilities and take a tour. Feel free to contact us at 951-530- 8188. We are located at 5225 Canyon Crest Drive, building 300, Suite 303, Riverside, CA 92507