Apodaca: Kids can break the code to success

Both Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor high schools now offer Advanced Placement classes in computer science. That’s an encouraging sign, given the increasing calls for educational curriculum geared toward the knowledge and skills most in demand in the 21^st-century workforce.

But a few high school classes won’t be nearly enough, at least according to the growing chorus of those calling for a far greater commitment to teaching computer science, not just in high school and college but to kids so young they still need help blowing their noses and tying their shoelaces.

If you think teaching coding to kindergartners sounds outlandish, think again, for this is one of the hottest topics in education today.

According to some projections, about 1 million more jobs will be created in the tech sector in the United States over the coming decade than there will be skilled workers to fill them. Even non-tech jobs are expected to require increased technical proficiency. It’s now an article of the collective wisdom that a minimal level of competency in computer science will be essential to virtually everyone going forward.

Despite this acknowledgment of the importance of understanding not just how to use technology but how it works, the number of schoolchildren who are exposed to some instruction in computer coding remains shockingly small. Just 10% of our schools are estimated to offer computer science instruction, mainly at the secondary level.

What’s more, those classes are typically wedged into tight schedules jammed with required courses and other electives considered necessary for college-bound students. A friend of mine, for instance, recently told me of her student’s dilemma — a choice between Corona del Mar High’s new AP computer science class and the next level of the foreign language that the student had already committed several years to studying. Either way, the student would lose an important piece of education.

True, some students are exposed to computer science through extracurricular activities — summer-enrichment programs and after-school clubs — but those opportunities cost parents extra and remain limited in availability. Some cities and states have responded with plans to bolster computer science instruction, although those efforts so far remain scattered and inconsistent.

And that means we in the United States are behind.

Eyes are now fixed on England, where an ambitious initiative is under way to teach computer science to all schoolchildren beginning at age 5. Estonia also has made computer literacy a national cause, teaching young children to create computer games and offering incentives to lure more students into studying technology at higher levels. Other countries, from New Zealand to Israel, have made computer science instruction a higher priority than we do in America.

Now education advocates in the U.S. are calling for an aggressive, comprehensive movement to catch up. Increasingly, various educational organizations and reform leaders are spearheading a push to make computer science a part of core curriculum — right up there beside science and social studies mainstays — for every student beginning in the earliest grades.

The rationale for starting kids coding young is straightforward: The earlier that students are exposed to the fundamentals of programming, the more comfortable and proficient they’ll become with technology. Some educators have even recommended starting children barely out of diapers working on rudimentary games that teach the basics of coding; others advocate beginning formal instruction at the ripe old age of 5.

One note of caution: The prospect of schoolkids of all ages learning to code has many in the business world — from venture capitalists to “ed-tech” firms — salivating at the marketing opportunities for educational games and programs. Any time for-profit enterprises get involved in educational “revolutions,” it’s best to be a tad skeptical.

That warning aside, the movement to get more computer science instruction into our schools seems to encompass far more than cynical profiteering. Many progressive educators are increasingly convinced that computer science instruction offers the potential for students to learn much more than the ones and zeros of coding.

Indeed, many believe that it can greatly enhance students’ problem-solving and analytical skills — perhaps not without coincidence the same kind of deep-thinking exercises the new Common Core standards are meant to foster.

The difference comes in the shift from kids passively using available technology to creating, manipulating and advancing content. That takes creativity, intense engagement and considerable brain power. It also requires students to stick with a problem, work through frustrating failures and obstacles and trouble-shoot ideas to get to the next step, advocates say.

Another possibly happy outcome of boosting the focus on teaching coding is that girls, who for various reasons are now much less likely to pursue tech-heavy subjects in higher education and later employment, will be turned on to programming at an early age. That could benefit them no matter the field they ultimately choose to pursue.

While a convincing case is being made that all kids should be learning to code, getting there would require a massive commitment involving the training of teachers, upended curriculum priorities, scheduling shifts, technological investments — the list goes on.

It won’t be easy, or cheap. But it’s becoming increasingly apparent that if today’s kids are to compete in tomorrow’s economy, computer science education is essential.

PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.