This is why I will teach my kids programming.

Development
October 4th, 2010
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This is my first post in a very long time. But it's a really important one for me. Cos it's about what we need to do to ensure a part of the future for our kids.

To my dear kids; Vilda, Albin and Linus.

We teach you to read and write so that you can understand the world around you and have a chance to create your own values and views. So that you can form, affect and change yours and others opinions. So that you can engage in causes that you value. So that you maybe one day can change the world.

Our understanding of why we shall teach you this is based on the way information have been distributed the last 100 years; from a variety of sources with exclusive access to information; sources that decided to filter and shape the information the way they saw it and then distributed it to the rest of the world in the form of tv, newspapers, radio and printed matter.

Unfortunately the media landscape have changed dramatically; when newspapers, radio and tv were born they were independent, they tried to stay neutral and represent the truth. Today only a handful of outlets owns the news, the tv, the radio and the music. Truth and neutrality is no longer guaranteed.

Today you kids have to rely on the internet to stay independent. But with one big differance; there is no one collecting and gathering the truth for you. You have to do that yourself. The good thing is that it’s out there free for any of you to access. It’s in the Twitter streams, the Facebook statuses, the blogs and the open source tools, the api:s, the openGov projects, the UN databases, schools, librarys and a lot more.

But if you don’t know how to access, compile, compare and work with all this raw data you will be as easy mislead as we have been.

So, kids, I’m not saving up huge amounts for you to spend on housing, education and leisure in the future. I’m working my ass off to learn programming; PHP, Javascript, jQuery, C++, XML, JSON and more so that I firstly can make a living and help Malin support you and our family. Secondly so that I can give you the tools and knowledge to access the worlds sources of information and independently investigate and evaluate the world that is ahead of you. So that you can be free to find out things for yourself. Cos without the basic knowledge of computer programming you will not be able to draw your own conclutions. You can not form, affect and change yours or others opinions. You can not engage in causes that you value. You cannot change the world.

/Dad.

So, now that you read “This is why I will teach my kids programming.”, what is your thoughts?



There is one response to “This is why I will teach my kids programming.”

  1. Rasmus Says:

    October 5th, 2010 at 1:57 pm

    When I was seven or eight my father got me a super cool video game console. I wanted to plug it in and embark on my computer game odyssey right there and then, but my father insisted that I had to understand electronics before that could happen. For three days I glared at the box, reading the little booklet about circuits and electricity and didn’t understand at all. Atleast, not much extra value was added to my knowledge bank.

    However, as an adult I can see what he tried to do. It didn’t work. I use gadgets everyday with no thoughts of exactly how they’re put together.

    I respect what you’re trying to teach your children and for the right reasons. But I think there’s got to be an interest there to spark the curiosity.

    I’m not like my dad. I started creating stuff early and never took a liking to engineering or programming but I’d like to think that the idea he tried to show me was the point of it all. That I should question everything and be the best I could be. Engineer or dreamer aside.