Earnest: K-12 foreign language requirements — is coding a viable substitute?
Almost everyone that went through the K-12 school system took at least a couple of years of some type of foreign language. Be it Chinese, Spanish or French, public high schools and colleges want students to have an introductory understanding of different cultures and languages.
Although the particular high school that I attended didn’t require students to take foreign language courses directly, it was still considered an important thing to have on your transcript when applying to college. However, Florida Senator Jeremy Ring is proposing that K-12 institutions offer computer programming courses that would count as foreign language courses when being transferred to a higher institution.
Being a former Yahoo executive, Ring is no stranger to the tech industry and the growing demand for software engineers. One article included a statement by Caroline Joiner from Tech Net, who basically said that by 2020 there will be a million more jobs that require sufficient computing skills. So the demand is certainly there for individuals to enter the tech industry, but that isn’t the end goal to including programming courses in K-12 curriculum.
So programming related jobs are expected to grow, however, what exactly justifies passing Jeremy Ring’s SB 468 and requiring schools to satisfy two foreign language credits for a student taking a programming course? Well to clear up any confusion about what this bill would do in the first place, foreign language courses would not be replaced by coding courses, but coding would rather be added onto the repertoire of what is classified as a foreign language course.
This begins to raise flags for those who believe that kids would flee from Spanish to taking a course on Bash Scripting or C++ over Spanish I or an equivalent. I’m compelled to agree with that argument myself, but programming languages are considered foreign to a considerable population of our planet, so any student who would like to take a programming course over a Spanish course would still be challenging themselves to think and learn differently. Of course there are those who consider foreign languages to be a fundamental part of any K-12 curriculum due to the cultural literacy that could be gained. I agree with this, and believe that Earnest: K-12 foreign language requirements — is coding a viable substitute? – Rocky Mountain Collegian:
