This was going to be a rather long biographical post about how I learnt to code. But I deleted all the boring stuff and I leave you with this reusable nugget…
Simply replace [code] with another subject.
Learning [code] was my way of solving a problem. If your problem can be solved by [code], then learn it. If not, don’t. Don’t learn [code] just because you think you should learn [code]. Don’t let anyone make you learn [code] if it isn’t going to help you solve a problem.
Now go and reform the education system so that we teach our children how to choose the right tool to solve a problem, and not how to pass tests.
Tags: learning, learning to code, solve problems not maths questions
Hmm this post reminds me of a great video, issued by a remarkable British associaction, the RSA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
What is the right tool for choosing the right tool to solve a problem?
If you can choose the right tool for a given situation, then you will be using a set of creative, evaluative and experimental approaches to problem solving. In other words there is no single tool. What you do have are the capabilities that you are born with. Your brain is an intrinsic part of who you are and doesn’t conform to the definition of a tool… but that’s what you should use to pick the right tool.
I love the suggestion from the RSA lecture video in Colin’s comment that we are born a genius.
Spot on Tim… Passing tests has way too much pressure…. Then what? Kids cant do anything. If they can learn to Read well – Write well – Do Maths Basics Add/Multiply/Take away/Divide (in their head as well) and then learn probelem solciving and life skills, we might have kids that do achieve.
Together with confidence, right mental attitude, social and how to interact with others.
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Colin – I watched that video – soooo correct in my mind…