I agree that working coding into the U.S. curriculum is ultimately a good idea, but I think Yglesias’s basic point that we need to recommit to teaching critical reading, writing, and rhetoric before we take on anything else stands. I have taught freshman composition at several highly selective colleges and universities, and my students are often angry that they have gotten to college without really being taught how to write lucid and sustained prose, or how to analyze even basic aesthetic and political texts. And these are very bright, mostly well-heeled kids. What is going on down the economic ladder is painful to think about.If we can teach kids to really read and write, they’ll have an easier time learning to code, whenever they try to learn.
]]>