Compulsory Coding?
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“It seems that every passing day, another technology product is released. In “ 0110000101100100011001000110100101110100011010010110111101101110001011000010000001101001011101000010000001110011011001010110010101101101 0111001100100000011101000110100001100001011101000010000001100011011011110110110101110000011000010110111001101001011001010111001100100000 0110000101110010011001010010000001101001011011100111010001110010011011110110010001110101011000110110100101101110011001110010000001100001 0110111001100100001000000111000001101100011000010111001101110100011001010111001001101001011011100110011100100000011011100110010101110111 00100000011000010111000001110000011100110010000001100001011011100110010000100000011001110110000101101101011001010111001100100000 exec “”“\ncoding is a dire skill that people must be taught in order to succeed. Some feel that this\n””” 115 107 105 108 108 32 109 117 115 116 32 98 101 32 116 97 117 103 104 116 32 100 117 114 105 110 103 32 115 99 104 111 111 108 32 105 110 32 116 104 101 32 102 117 116 117 114 101 32 119 104 105 108 101 32 111 116 104 101 114 115 32 98 101 108 105 101 118 101 32 105 116 32 105 115 32 97 32 115 107 105 108 108 32 116 104 97 116 32 111 110 101 32 ‘can choose to explore if interested. Despite the world’s increasing dependence on ‘ U+74 U+65 U+63 U+68 U+6E U+6F U+6C U+6F U+67 U+79 U+2C U+20 U+63 U+6F U+64 U+69 U+6E U+67 U+20 U+73 U+68 U+6F U+75 U+6C U+64 U+20 U+6E U+6F U+74 U+20 U+62 U+65 U+20 U+61 U+20 U+63 U+6F U+6D U+70 U+75 U+6C U+73 U+6F U+72 U+79 U+20 U+73 U+75 U+62 U+6A U+65 U+63 U+74 U+20 U+69 U+6E U+20 U+74 U+68 U+65 U+20 U+55 U+2E U+53 U+2E U+20 U+65 U+64 U+75 U+63 U+61 U+74 U+69 U+6F U+6E U+20 U+73 U+79 U+73 U+74 U+65 U+6D U+2E U+20 43 6f 64 69 6e 67 20 69 73 20 61 20 73 6b 69 6c 6c 20 74 68 61 74 20 63 61 6e 6e 6f 74 20 62 65 20 66 6f 72 63 65 64 20 75 70 6f 6e 20 65 76 65 72 79 6f 6e 65 20 61 6e 64 20 77 69 6c 6c 20 62 65 20 65 78 70 6c 6f 72 65 64 20 62 79 20 74 68 6f 73 65 20 “who are intrigued by it. \n”
0100010101110110011001010110111000100000011101000110100001101111011101010110011101101000001000000110100101110100001000000111001101100101 0110010101101101011100110010000001101100011010010110101101100101001000000110110101110101011000110110100000100000011011110110011000100000 0111010001101000011001010010000001110111011011110111001001101100011001000010000001101001011100110010000001100100011011110110110101101001 0110111001100001011101000110010101100100001000000110001001111001001000000111010001100101011000110110100001101110011011110110110001101111 01100111011110010010000001100001011011100110010000100000 exec “”“\ncomputer science field. In fact, 1,845,497 bachelor degrees were earned from\n””” 50 48 49 52 45 50 48 49 53 32 40 77 111 115 116 32 80 111 112 117 108 97 114 32 77 97 106 111 114 115 41 46 32 85 115 105 110 103 32 116 104 105 115 32 100 97 116 97 44 32 105 110 32 50 48 49 54 44 32 51 53 44 51 50 57 32 99 111 109 112 117 116 101 114 32 115 99 105 101 110 99 101 32 ‘degrees were earned (Computer Science). Using these numbers, computer science ‘ U+64 U+65 U+67 U+72 U+65 U+65 U+73 U+20 U+77 U+6F U+75 U+6C U+64 U+20 U+61 U+63 U+63 U+6F U+75 U+6E U+74 U+20 U+66 U+6F U+72 U+20 U+6C U+65 U+73 U+73 U+20 U+74 U+68 U+61 U+6E U+20 U+32 U+25 U+20 U+6F U+66 U+20 U+61 U+6C U+6C U+20 U+64 U+65 U+67 U+72 U+65 U+65 U+20 U+6F U+77 U+6E U+65 U+72 U+73 U+2E U+20 U+57 U+68 U+69 U+6C U+65 U+20 U+72 U+65 U+71 U+75 U+69 U+72 U+69 U+6E U+67 U+20 U+73 U+74 U+75 U+64 U+65 U+6E U+74 U+73 U+20 74 6f 20 74 61 6b 65 20 61 20 63 6f 6d 70 75 74 65 72 20 73 63 69 65 6e 63 65 20 63 6f 75 72 73 65 20 69 6e 20 68 69 67 68 20 73 63 68 6f 6f 6c 20 77 69 6c 6c 20 65 78 70 6f 73 65 20 6d 6f 72 65 20 73 74 75 64 65 6e 74 73 20 74 6f 20 74 68 69 73 20 66 69 65 6c 64 2c 20 “it may not dramatically increase the number of students that choose to pursue this “
0110110101100001011010100110111101110010001011100010000001001001011011100010000001100001011001000110010001101001011101000110100101101111 0110111000101100001000000111001101110100011101010110010001100101011011100111010001110011001000000110011001101111011011000110110001101111 0111011100100000011101000110100001100101011010010111001000100000011100000110000101110011011100110110100101101111011011100111001100100000 0111011101101000011001010110111000100000011001000110010101100011011010010110010001101001011011100110011100100000011101110110100001101001 0110001101101000001000000110001101101100011000010111001101110011011001010111001100100000011101000110111100100000 exec “”“\nthere are Psychology, Art History, and Foreign Language AP Courses. Those who feel\n””” 116 104 97 116 32 97 32 99 111 109 112 117 108 115 111 114 121 32 99 111 100 105 110 103 32 99 108 97 115 115 32 99 111 117 108 100 32 105 110 99 114 101 97 115 101 32 116 104 101 32 97 109 111 117 110 116 32 111 102 32 112 101 111 112 108 101 32 116 104 97 116 32 109 97 106 111 114 32 105 110 32 ‘computer science should keep in mind that you don’‘t have to have a computer science ‘ U+6D U+61 U+6A U+6F U+72 U+20 U+74 U+6F U+20 U+63 U+6F U+64 U+65 U+20 U+61 U+6E U+64 U+20 U+74 U+68 U+61 U+74 U+20 U+63 U+6F U+6C U+6C U+65 U+67 U+65 U+20 U+69 U+73 U+20 U+61 U+6C U+72 U+65 U+61 U+64 U+79 U+20 U+76 U+65 U+72 U+79 U+20 U+65 U+78 U+70 U+65 U+6E U+73 U+69 U+76 U+65 U+20 U+61 U+6E U+64 U+20 U+6D U+61 U+6E U+79 U+20 U+6D U+61 U+79 U+20 U+6E U+6F U+74 U+20 U+63 U+68 U+6F U+6F U+73 U+65 U+20 U+74 U+6F U+20 70 75 72 73 75 65 20 69 74 2e 20
“Coding is not a foundational skill that everyone will interact with on a day to day “011000100110000101110011011010010111001100101110001000000101001101101001011011100110001101100101001000000110001101101111011001000110100 1011011100110011100100000011010010111001100100000011000010010000001101100011001010110000101110010011011100110010101100100001000000111001 1011010110110100101101100011011000010000001110100011010000110000101110100001000000110110001101001011010110110010101101100011110010010000 0011101110110111101101110111000101000000010011001011101000010000001100010011001010010000001110101011101000110100101101100011010010111101 0011001010110010000100000011001010111011001100101011100100111100101100100011000010111100100100000011001100110111101110010001000000111001 10111010001110101011001000110010101101110011101000111001100100000 exec “”“\nforgotten. In addition, teaching students to code will likely result in “plug and chugs”\n””” 114 97 116 104 101 114 32 116 104 97 110 32 116 104 101 109 32 107 110 111 119 105 110 103 32 116 104 101 32 112 114 111 99 101 115 115 32 97 110 100 32 109 101 97 110 105 110 103 32 98 101 104 105 110 100 32 119 104 97 116 32 116 104 101 121 226 128 153 114 101 32 100 111 105 110 103 46 32 ‘Furthermore, coding is becoming more user-friendly and accessible. There are apps, ‘ U+67 U+65 U+6E U+65 U+72 U+61 U+74 U+6F U+72 U+73 U+2C U+20 U+61 U+6E U+64 U+20 U+63 U+6F U+6E U+76 U+65 U+72 U+74 U+65 U+72 U+73 U+20 U+74 U+68 U+61 U+74 U+20 U+63 U+6F U+64 U+65 U+73 U+20 U+66 U+6F U+72 U+20 U+79 U+6F U+75 U+2E U+20 U+41 U+73 U+20 U+73 U+65 U+65 U+6E U+20 U+74 U+68 U+72 U+6F U+75 U+67 U+68 U+20 U+57 U+69 U+6B U+69 U+70 U+65 U+64 U+69 U+61 U+20 U+61 U+64 U+64 U+69 U+6E U+67 U+20 U+69 U+6E U+20 U+61 U+20 6e 65 77 20 65 64 69 74 20 6f 70 74 69 6f 6e 20 74 6f 20 61 6c 6c 6f 77 20 75 73 65 72 73 20 74 6f 20 65 64 69 74 20 61 72 74 69 63 6c 65 73 20 77 69 74 68 6f 75 74 20 75 73 69 6e 67 20 74 68 65 20 57 69 6b 69 2d 63 6f 64 65 2c 20 6e 65 77 20 “platforms are being introduced that makes coding easier. Because the world coding is “011000110110111101101110011100110111010001100001011011100111010001101100011110010010000001100011011010000110000101101110011001110110100 1011011100110011100101100001000000111011101101000011000010111010000100000011010010111001100100000011101000110000101110101011001110110100 0011101000010000001101001011011100010000001110011011000110110100001101111011011110110110000100000011000110110111101110101011011000110010 0001000000110001001100101001000000110001101101111011011010111000001101100011001010111010001100101011011000111100100100000011101010111001 1011001010110110001100101011100110111001100100000011001000110111101110111011011100010000001110100011010000110010100100000 exec “”“\nneed to forget that code and learn another. There are already nine different computer\n””” 112 114 111 103 114 97 109 109 105 110 103 32 108 97 110 103 117 97 103 101 32 99 97 116 101 103 111 114 105 101 115 32 119 105 116 104 32 117 112 32 116 111 32 50 49 32 100 105 102 102 101 114 101 110 116 32 108 97 110 103 117 97 103 101 115 32 117 110 100 101 114 32 101 97 99 104 32 ‘category (Nice). Because of this, a compulsory course could cause more stress than ‘ U+67 U+6F U+6F U+64 U+2E
57 68 69 6c 65 20 74 68 65 72 65 20 61 72 65 20 6d 61 6e 79 20 62 65 6e 65 66 69 74 73 20 74 6f 20 6c 65 61 72 6e 69 6e 67 20 74 6f 20 63 6f 64 65 2c 20 69 74 20 73 68 6f 75 6c 64 20 62 65 20 61 20 63 68 6f 69 63 65 20 74 68 61 74 20 “students make on their own, not one that is forced upon them. At schools, counselors” 0110000101101110011001000010000001110100011001010110000101100011011010000110010101110010011100110010000001100011011000010110111000100000 0110100101101110011001100110111101110010011011010010000001110011011101000111010101100100011001010110111001110100011100110010000001101111 0110011000100000011000010110110001101100001000000111010001101000011001010010000001110111011000010111100101110011001000000110001101101111 0110010001101001011011100110011100100000011000010110110001101100011011110111011101110011001000000111100101101111011101010010000001110100 011011110010000001110011011101000110000101101110011001000010000001101111011101010111010000100000011101000110111100100000 exec “”“\nresume to stand out, opens career doors, helps you understand other aspects of\n””” 116 101 99 104 110 111 108 111 103 121 44 32 97 110 100 32 114 101 105 110 102 111 114 99 101 115 32 105 110 100 101 112 101 110 100 101 110 99 101 46 32 72 111 119 101 118 101 114 44 32 105 102 32 101 118 101 114 121 111 110 101 32 105 115 32 116 97 117 103 104 116 32 104 111 119 32 116 111 32 99 111 100 101 44 32 ‘seeing coding as a skill on a resume will not be as impressive as it is today. In addition,’ U+73 U+74 U+75 U+64 U+65 U+6E U+74 U+73 U+20 U+73 U+68 U+6F U+75 U+6C U+64 U+20 U+66 U+6F U+6C U+6C U+6F U+77 U+20 U+74 U+68 U+65 U+69 U+72 U+20 U+70 U+61 U+73 U+73 U+69 U+6F U+6E U+73 U+20 U+61 U+6E U+64 U+20 U+6E U+6F U+74 U+20 U+65 U+6E U+74 U+69 U+72 U+65 U+6C U+79 U+20 U+62 U+61 U+73 U+65 U+20 U+74 U+68 U+65 U+69 U+72 U+20 U+63 U+61 U+72 U+65 U+65 U+72 U+20 U+70 U+61 U+74 U+68 U+20 U+62 U+61 U+73 U+65 U+64 U+20 U+6F U+6E U+20 74 68 65 20 6d 61 72 6b 65 74 20 6f 72 20 64 6f 6f 72 73 20 6f 70 65 6e 20 62 61 73 65 64 20 6f 6e 20 6c 65 61 72 6e 65 64 20 73 6b 69 6c 6c 73 20 74 68 65 79 20 6d 61 79 20 6e 6f 74 20 65 6e 6a 6f 79 2e 20 4d 61 6e 79 20 61 72 67 75 65 20 74 68 61 74 20 69 66 20 “you do not know how to code or understand the languages, you\u2019ll have to rely on “ 0111001101101111011011010110010101101111011011100110010100100000011001010110110001110011011001010010000001110100011011110010000001100100 0110111100100000011010010111010000101110001000000100100001101111011101110110010101110110011001010111001000101100001000000110100101110100 0010000001101001011100110010000001101001011011010111000001101111011100100111010001100001011011100111010000100000011101000110111100100000 0110111001101111011101000110010100100000011101000110100001100001011101000010000001100011011011110110110001101100011000010110001001101111 011100100110000101110100011010010110111101101110001000000110100101110011001000000111011001100101011100100111100100100000 exec “”“\nunlikely that one person will complete all features of an entire project on their own. This\n””” 105 115 32 114 101 108 101 118 97 110 116 32 97 115 32 116 104 101 114 101 32 101 120 105 115 116 115 32 115 112 101 99 105 97 108 105 122 101 100 32 115 107 105 108 108 115 32 116 104 97 116 32 112 101 111 112 108 101 32 97 114 101 32 115 112 101 99 105 102 105 99 97 108 108 121 32 104 105 114 101 100 32 102 111 114 46 32 73 102 32 97 32 ‘student wishes to pursue a coding career, then they can choose to explore the world of’ U+63 U+6F U+64 U+69 U+6E U+67 U+2C U+20 U+77 U+69 U+74 U+68 U+6F U+75 U+74 U+20 U+70 U+72 U+65 U+73 U+73 U+75 U+72 U+65 U+20 U+66 U+72 U+6F U+6D U+20 U+74 U+68 U+65 U+20 U+65 U+64 U+75 U+63 U+61 U+74 U+69 U+6F U+6E U+20 U+73 U+79 U+73 U+74 U+65 U+6D U+2C U+20 U+61 U+6E U+64 U+20 U+73 U+65 U+65 U+6B U+20 U+74 U+68 U+65 U+73 U+65 U+20 U+6A U+6F U+62 U+73 U+20 U+77 U+69 U+74 U+68 U+20 U+61 U+69 U+64 U+20 U+66 U+72 U+6F U+6D U+20 61 64 76 69 73 6f 72 73 2e
“As a software engineer stated, \u201Cif you aren\u2019t dreaming of becoming a “ 0111000001110010011011110110011101110010011000010110110101101101011001010111001000100000111000101000000010010100001000000110000101101110 0110010000100000011101000110100001100101011100100110010101100110011011110111001001100101001000000111000001101100011000010110111001101110 0110100101101110011001110010000001110100011011110010000001100101011011010110001001100001011100100110101100100000011011110110111000100000 0110000100100000011011000110010101101110011001110111010001101000011110010010000001100011011011110111010101110010011100110110010100100000 0110111101100110001000000111001101110100011101010110010001111001001011000010000001110111011010000110010101110100011010000110010101110010 00100000 exec “”“\ncoding is an important skill in the 21st century. However, coding should not become a\n””” 99 111 109 112 117 108 115 111 114 121 32 99 111 117 114 115 101 32 105 110 32 116 104 101 32 85 110 105 116 101 100 32 83 116 97 116 101 115 32 101 100 117 99 97 116 105 111 110 32 115 121 115 116 101 109 46 32 73 110 115 116 101 97 100 32 111 102 32 102 111 114 99 105 110 103 32 99 111 100 105 110 103 32 ‘onto students, English classes could teach students how to model. Modeling relies on ‘ U+62 U+72 U+65 U+61 U+6B U+69 U+6E U+67 U+20 U+64 U+6F U+77 U+6E U+20 U+70 U+61 U+72 U+74 U+73 U+20 U+69 U+6E U+74 U+6F U+20 U+73 U+6D U+61 U+6C U+6C U+65 U+72 U+20 U+63 U+6F U+6D U+70 U+6F U+6E U+65 U+6E U+74 U+73 U+20 U+74 U+6F U+20 U+62 U+65 U+20 U+65 U+78 U+70 U+6C U+6F U+72 U+65 U+64 U+20 U+61 U+6E U+64 U+20 U+64 U+65 U+65 U+70 U+6C U+79 U+20 U+65 U+78 U+70 U+6C U+61 U+69 U+6E U+65 U+64 U+2E U+20 4d 6f 64 65 6c 69 6e 67 20 77 69 6c 6c 20 61 6c 6c 6f 77 20 73 74 75 64 65 6e 74 73 20 74 6f 20 73 65 65 20 77 68 61 74 20 63 6f 6d 70 6f 6e 65 6e 74 73 20 67 6f 20 69 6e 74 6f 20 63 6f 64 69 6e 67 2c 20 61 6e 64 20 61 6e 79 20 6f 74 68 65 72 20 “skill, and decide if they\u2019d be interested in learning/practicing it more (Granger). In “ 0110000101100100011001000110100101110100011010010110111101101110001011000010000001110011011000110110100001101111011011110110110001110011 0010000001100011011011110111010101101100011001000010000001101001011011100110011001101111011100100110110100100000011100110111010001110101 0110010001100101011011100111010001110011001000000110000101100010011011110111010101110100001000000110001101101111011001000110100101101110 0110011100100000011000010110111001100100001000000110100101110100011100110010000001100010011001010110111001100101011001100110100101110100 011100110010000001100001011011100110010000100000011011000110010101110100001000000111010001101000011001010110110100100000 exec “”“\nand those interested will likely go to teach themselves or seek classes on their own.\n””” 84 104 101 114 101 102 111 114 101 44 32 99 111 100 105 110 103 32 115 104 111 117 108 100 110 226 128 153 116 32 98 101 32 105 109 112 111 115 101 100 32 111 110 32 116 104 111 115 101 32 116 104 97 116 32 104 97 118 101 32 110 111 32 105 110 116 101 114 101 115 116 32 105 110 32 105 116 46
Looking back at your educational history, if you took a compulsory coding course, do you believe you would be able to make sense out of what is above? Do you believe that you would have forgotten this information already? Are you only getting a piece of the puzzle that would be obvious to anyone able to read the English language? If still familiar with the content, would you try to refresh your memory through a crash course or simply put this through different translators? I believe that it is very important to note that not everyone is intrigued by coding languages. I expect many people that looked at this to simply close it right away after realizing that they couldn’t care less what this actually meant. However, there are others that are fond of coding languages. As argued coherently, and in one language, in my original essay: I believe that coding should not be imposed on everyone in the future United States education system.
In doing this translation, I learned that many coding languages only subtly affect formatting. In addition, I learned that binary translations take up a lot of space. During my translation, my opinion on the topic switched for a few days. In that time frame, I felt that it would be interesting, at least to me, to figure out how binary coding languages worked. In fact, I even read an article explaining how to translate the letters into number and vice versa! I thought that perhaps a mandatory course wouldn’t have been that bad and that I could’ve learned a lot. However, a days later, my opinion shifted back. Just after days of not using the binary language, I forgot how it worked. In addition, I knew that if I had learned this in high school, I likely would not have remembered it today because I likely wouldn’t have ever used it again. This then caused me to think about which class I would’ve had cut from my schedule in order to make it fit. Basically, I enjoyed all of my classes and wouldn’t have been the happiest if one of them had been coding instead.
Based on my experience in transposing this essay into different languages, I feel that the translation allows readers a glimpse into what they could expect when digging into coding languages. I would hope that readers would recognize how the languages differ from one another and how some look to be similar. In addition, I hope that the open-ended questions listed above would prompt readers to imagine a life in which they took a compulsory coding course in school and ponder if it would’ve been beneficial in this situation. I know that some readers could have been very interested in these languages and would want to learn more. If so, I am glad that this unessay led to exposure to languages that exist and the possibilities that coding reveals. In addition, I know that this unessay has drawbacks as it simply uses the languages in a way that doesn’t create a functioning program or game, which might have been more intriguing. Nonetheless, I hope that this exploration of languages and the possibility of a compulsory coding course in the future would prompt readers to read into debates on this topic.
In my original essay, I discuss research I came about and my interpretation of it - all of which is linked on the resources page. I recognize that there are many benefits to learning how to code but I also highlight how forcing students to learn may not be as impactful as anticipated.
If interested, these links were used for translation: