Remember the big mission to teach every kid to code? We built the boot camps, launched the clubs, handed out laptops, and instilled hope. “Coding is the new literacy,” they said.
Fast-forward. Now, kids type a sentence into an AI, and boom, they have a fully functional app. No clue what a loop is. No idea why it works. But it runs. It passes. It’s done.
And I know. Debugging still matters. Reading the code still matters. Talking it out with the rubber duck still works wonders. That duck has been my co-teacher for years. Add some pizza to the mix and we’re cooking with logic.
But here’s the twist: AI is learning to be the duck. It’s patient. It listens. It suggests. It never gets pizza sauce on the keyboard. And it doesn’t care if the student skipped class.
So now I’m asking:
What does it mean to “learn to code” today?
Is it about the code itself, or the thinking behind it?
Are we still teaching kids how to build, or are we teaching them how to talk to the thing that builds?
If you teach, code, parent, or care about this space, talk to me. The duck and I are listening. We’ve got questions. And snacks, of course.
Bruce Elgort 