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Arizona Bill Would Make Students In Grades 4-12 Participate Once In An Hour of Code (azpbs.org)
theodp writes: Christopher Silavong of Cronkite News reports: "A bill, introduced by [Arizona State] Sen. John Kavanagh [R-Fountain Hills] would mandate that public and charter schools provide one hour of coding instruction once between grades 4 to 12. Kavanagh said it's critical for students to learn the language -- even if it's only one session -- so they can better compete for jobs in today's world. However, some legislators don't believe a state mandate is the right approach. Senate Bill 1136 has passed the Senate, and it's headed to the House of Representatives. Kavanagh said he was skeptical about coding and its role in the future. But he changed his mind after learning that major technology companies were having trouble finding domestic coders and talking with his son, who works at a tech company." According to the Bill, the instruction can "be offered by either a nationally recognized nonprofit organization [an accompanying Fact Sheet mentions tech-backed Code.org] that is devoted to expanding access to computer science or by an entity with expertise in providing instruction to pupils on interactive computer instruction that is aligned to the academic standards."
That's literally how I got started. At pre-school, age 3, we had a toy tank thing with a keypad on the top. You entered a little program, pressed "go" and off it went.
The understanding that I could program machines lead me to learn BASIC from the manual that came with my first computer. These days I'm an embedded software engineer.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
You're going to find people this way. There's always one or two kids that haven't seen it, didn't try it, and they never knew they had a knack for it. Without exposure you'll never know what works (just like all coding).
In one hour if 90% of the class says "meh" then you've still got 4-5 young kids going home and asking Dad for a PC. Two of those might even read a book or two. This is equally true for all career paths but computer science has to be started young because there's an enormous and ever expanding body of knowledge underneath it. It might take a lifetime to even read The Art Of Programming.