CHAPTER 4

Behind the question of how best to implement computer coding in the school curriculum is the larger philosophical issue of whether or not it should be or needs to be taught. Should it be treated — as Doig, the Shawnigan teacher, notes it is currently in B.C. — as a ‘novelty’ unit?

Governments that choose to put coding into their provincial curricula cite the kinds of studies referenced in earlier chapters. Despite the fact that these studies foresee a need for technology workers in Canada, it’s still fair to ask whether coding is a fundamental skill that should be taught in schools across Canada.

For many, even in the technology community, this issue is not settled. It would be natural to imagine a debate with the technologically literate people arguing in favour of coding education and the more traditional, entrenched voices expressing skepticism. In reality, the two sides don’t always fit into those neat boxes.

Steve Etlinger founded Wirespeak, a tech services firm, in 2000. Originally based in Ottawa, the company now also has an office in Montreal, and specializes in open source technologies and content management. Etlinger calls himself a ‘web architect.’

His firm only employs about 10 full-time positions, so Etlinger isn’t personally concerned about a possible job shortage in the technology sector. He is worried, however, about the prospect of trying to predict the future of what technology will look like. Even so, his position on teaching computer coding in schools is surprising.

“I don’t know that it necessarily solves a problem, and I think it potentially creates another problem,” he says. “I don’t think anybody is in a great position to make a ton of predictions. You’re talking about people that are at least several years away from entering the work force in most cases,” he says. 

“I think a good knowledge of anything Internet related is obviously a good thing. Is it necessarily more important than other skills? I don’t know.”

While some — including B.C. Premier Clark — contend that coding skills will be ubiquitous in a few years, Etlinger sees things differently. Having been on the ground level of the tech industry for 17 years, he maintains that the public views computer programming as more of a niche activity. And he thinks that, after all these years, that’s still the reality.

“My experience with web development and software development is that to be good at it, to be at the level that I think kind of drives innovation, and what the government might be trying to get out of it, it’s not for everybody. It’s something that is still very much, guys and girls coding at 3 a.m. in a dark room — that whole stereotype is still kind of true and that’s what creates the kind of momentum that drives a lot of the innovation and ideas that we are seeing.”

In Etlinger’s view, there are few people who have the required mindset or desire that it takes to be influential in the field of computer programming: “It’s hard to have a normal, balanced life. It’s one of these things that … just like being a plumber isn’t for everybody, and being a painter or doing anything. No one particular job is for everybody, so I don’t think pushing people into software is going to accomplish what you want it to accomplish, necessarily.”

Patti Bacchus, the former VSB trustee who lost her job due to the school board’s inability to present a balanced budget, echoes this sentiment. “The question is ‘Does every student need to learn how to code?’ I don’t know. It seemed to have been announced with minimal consultation with teachers and educators,” she says, in reference to the B.C. government bringing in coding into the curriculum without much warning and with what many have deemed as insufficient funds.

“Is it just a response to the demand of the industry or is it something students really need to know? Usually we have those conversations a little more thoroughly and inclusively of other groups, but the coding announcement came sort of suddenly and I think it raised questions of ‘Are we really going to try and jam this into a fairly well thought-out curriculum change?’ without really having thought out what it means?”

But trends for both Vancouver and Ottawa suggest that future workforces might find it handy to know how to code.

According to the Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s State of Canada’s Tech Sector 2016 report, the tech sector represents the second biggest private sector employer in both Vancouver and the Ottawa-Gatineau region. Halifax is the only other major city where the tech sector ranks higher than third in the province.

It’s also important to note that in Canada as a whole, the tech sector is far and away the leader when it comes to business enterprise research and development (BERD), a common, though inexact, tool used to measure innovation. At over $9.1 billion, the tech sector was by far the largest private investor in BERD in 2015, coming in at $2.7 billion higher than the next closest sector, manufacturing.

Another Brookfield study had product innovation from the information and communications technology industry ranking higher than any other field.

Rita Agarwal, who, in addition to running coding camps for elementary and secondary school teachers in Vancouver, has two young daughters of her own, is a strong advocate for children learning the craft as early as possible.

“They don’t really have opinions about themselves, that’s what I’ve noticed over time,” she says, referencing her four years working with children. “If I’m teaching a 12-year-old kid versus an 8-year-old kid, there’s so much difference in the way they learn and the way they ask questions. At 12, 13 [years old] they start thinking twice before they ask a question, like ’What are people going to think about me?’”

Agarwal’s children both started learning coding when Agarwal started teaching it. And while her elder daughter, who is 15, is technologically proficient, she’s “got an artistic side to her,” according to Agarwal. “She can code, but that’s not what she wants to do all the time. Whereas my younger one was working on an Android app for her science fair this year.” She’s in Grade 7.

In other parts of the world, developing a mobile app in elementary school wouldn’t seem so outlandish.

The U.K. was the first country to institute a countrywide coding curriculum, in 2014. Since then, many other countries — mostly in Europe, but also in places like Russia, China, Japan and Australia — have followed suit, at varying levels of implementation.

In the below map, numbers have been assigned to measure each country’s dedication to implementing coding in its schools. A five indicates that all or close to all schools have mandatory coding courses, while the further down the ranking, the less likely a elementary or secondary school student is to get exposure to coding.

Like Agarwal, Louise Harrison balances being a teacher with raising two school-age children. She lives in Queensland, Australia. “All children from Prep (Kindergarten) to Year 6 have an hour of coding/ICT skills each week,” says Harrison. “There is an information and communications technology teacher who teaches this subject, but the classroom teachers are expected to know the basics, as the children have their lessons alternate weeks with the ICT teacher and the classroom teacher.”

Coding has been in Australian schools since late 2015, after opposition leader Bill Shorten campaigned aggressively on implementing the subject in all primary and secondary institutions.

Shorten’s Labor party, like Christy Clark’s Liberals, used ICT projections to validate its stance, pointing to an estimate by the Australian Workforce Productivity Agency. The agency predicted that in 2025 there could be a need for key ICT occupations, with employment projected to grow between 64 and 72 per cent faster than overall employment growth, and account for around 5 per cent of all employment.

But the proposals that the Australian Labor Party made were more measured than Clark’s. Labor laid out plans to see coding taught in every primary and secondary Australian school by 2020 with $9 million in federal funds to set up a National Coding in Schools centre for teachers to develop their skills in the subject.

The Prime Minister at the time, Tony Abbott, was against implementing coding, but when he was unseated in a party vote by Malcolm Turnbull, the ruling Liberal Party drastically changed their minds toward coding in schools.

Abbott was cast aside Sept. 14, 2015. Exactly one week later, the government announced plans to have computer coding replace history and geography as a mandatory course in primary schools. While the topics would still be covered under the larger umbrella of social studies, individual courses in those subjects could be reserved for later-year electives.

And while this approach garnered a certain amount of fanfare and press, there is no evidence that it has actually happened in Australian schools.

“Coding is not replacing another subject at our school,” says Harrison. “The program was trialed last year (2016), as it was viewed as an important skill that needs to be a part of learning in this era of technology. As far as I am aware, there are some other schools beginning to work in coding, but it is not a national or state standard to include it in curriculum.”

It remains to be seen if Australia will pursue its promise to rid its elementary schools of mandatory history and geography courses in order to fully implement coding. The country’s case study does ask important questions about what deserves to be focused on, however.

Kids & Code founder Steve Lavigne, who has seen two of his alma maters give up their computer programming courses, has a young family in Barhaven now. Driving around his neighbourhood, Lavigne laments the fact that the community’s social priorities — soccer fields and hockey arenas — don’t reflect his own.

In the 360-degree video below, Lavigne explains why he started Kids & Code.

“Kids need to be active, and sports are super important. But why is there nothing for the nerdy kid?” Lavigne asks, staring through the glass doors of a room where more than 20 kids are gathered around computers learning code. “Not everyone is into soccer. So why isn’t there something for the nerdy kid that doesn’t play soccer, maybe doesn’t have a lot of friends, or has tons of friends and they’re all into programming too?”

“We only do this once a month currently. I wish we could do it every single day, that’s the goal,” he says. “Soccer fields are important, but why is the city spending so much money on soccer fields and not funding some stuff like this for these types of kids?”