Not everyone should have to learn to program, just as not everyone should have to learn how to build a car, or plumb their house.
But having some knowledge of programming serves the same purpose that knowledge of math, science, history, and other basic subjects does. It's not to teach people how to do everything under the sun, but that everything happens for a reason which can be understood - maybe not right this moment, but someday - that there is no "magic" which makes things happen. This basic understanding can make the difference between someone who feels helpless among things they have no control over, and someone who knows that somewhere, there exists the knowledge to effect change - knowledge that they might even be able to attain.
Getting back to programming, it means that you don't have to know exactly _how_ to program a computer in order to understand that everything it does is a result of somebody having programmed it, and to understand the basic principles. Armed with that understanding, users will be better equipped to use, troubleshoot, and learn more about that complicated thing on their desk.
Unfortunately, the days seem to be gone when the computer would boot up and immedately start taking commands from you, without any logging in, editing files, launching an interpreter, or other mental baggage. But for the general population, I don't think this would take much more than sitting down with notepad and authoring some basic HTML - enough to demonstrate that if you want the computer to say "Hello World!", you tell it to say "Hello World!".
I do worry that today's generations aren't even getting that much of an education. Hell, even within my own profession (software), I often wonder if people have any idea how things actually work, or spend any time wondering themselves.
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But having some knowledge of programming serves the same purpose that knowledge of math, science, history, and other basic subjects does. It's not to teach people how to do everything under the sun, but that everything happens for a reason which can be understood - maybe not right this moment, but someday - that there is no "magic" which makes things happen. This basic understanding can make the difference between someone who feels helpless among things they have no control over, and someone who knows that somewhere, there exists the knowledge to effect change - knowledge that they might even be able to attain.
Getting back to programming, it means that you don't have to know exactly _how_ to program a computer in order to understand that everything it does is a result of somebody having programmed it, and to understand the basic principles. Armed with that understanding, users will be better equipped to use, troubleshoot, and learn more about that complicated thing on their desk.
Unfortunately, the days seem to be gone when the computer would boot up and immedately start taking commands from you, without any logging in, editing files, launching an interpreter, or other mental baggage. But for the general population, I don't think this would take much more than sitting down with notepad and authoring some basic HTML - enough to demonstrate that if you want the computer to say "Hello World!", you tell it to say "Hello World!".
I do worry that today's generations aren't even getting that much of an education. Hell, even within my own profession (software), I often wonder if people have any idea how things actually work, or spend any time wondering themselves.