"Learning to Code" and "Coding to Learn"

I recently came across Mitchell Resnick's Interview. Mitchell Resnick, PhD, is a Papert Professor of Learning Research and the director of Lifelong kinderGarten group at MIT Media Lab. He speaks about the importance of creative learning through Computer Science and in turn Coding. He clearly illustrates the differences between the two paradigms: "Learning to code" and "Coding to learn". He brings out the importance of coding like identifying the problems, creative thinking, organizing and reformulating the ideas to meet the needs apart from the jobs and careers it would help in. I have always believed that coding teaches us to think systematically.

The below is one of the excerpt from Mitchell's interview where he speaks about the importance of Coding as a subject in school:

Should every child learn to code? Should coding be a school subject like algebra or chemistry?

RESNICK: I do think every child should learn to code, and I would approach it similarly to writing—the same way we teach children to write and then let them use their writing in all other courses. You learn to write and then use your writing in writing book reports and writing science reports—you use it in all other subjects. And I think similarly, it would be great for all kids to code and then use that knowledge in many other classes.

Events like Hour of Code have raised the visibility of coding and given people an opportunity to get some sense of what coding is all about. But it only will be meaningful if there’s a follow-up and follow-through. If people take that initial spark and turn an hour of code into a day of code or a week of code or a month of code where they continue to explore the possibilities of coding.

So it’s the same thing. If you just spend an hour learning to write, it wouldn’t be so useful. On the other hand, if that sparks your imagination and then you continue to do more things with it, then it becomes meaningful

Source/Complete Mitchell's interview is available here