Musings on law, tech, chess & other topics by a geek

At today’s Google D.C. Talk on Cybersecurity Harry Wingo Google’s Policy Counsel and Philip Reitinger of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security brought up the idea of teaching code at an early age to prepare for the future.

I was a little taken back, I had not anticipated strongly agreeing with many ideas under the heading “Developing a National Cybersecurity Strategy,” but this one is great. Code is a language & a pattern and in both cases children learn languages and patterns significantly faster and more thoroughly then adults. In working with children, ages 6 to 12, as a chess teacher during undergrad I was amazed at how quickly younger children could absorb complex tactics, it took them a fraction of the time it took older students or adults. Once those foundations were in place it then enabled the children to gain a deeper understand of how the game worked when they were older. I strongly believe the same is true of code, the earlier you learn code the more opportunities you will have to help creatively solve problems through code later in life. Early exposure to coding, not just seeing code but learning to play with it the way a child learns not just words but poetry and how to create stories when they learn a language, enables children to view the world from a perspective that is vital for creating a competitive advantage for the next generation.

Image from by vissago under CC-BY-NC

PS I am a little bias here, I learned to program in BASIC before the age of 9 on a commodore 64 (thx mom and dad), this has had a profound effect on the way I view the world.