4 Reasons To Start Programing Young

       Everyone's had that moment, staring at that blank document thinking, "I'm going to make an awesome website that has millions of views every day!" or, "maybe I'll make a new video game that's going to become the next best seller!" Your fingers start to move to the keyboard, excited, and then…  you remember that you don't really know how to code. But it can't be that hard, right? You quickly search up some videos and learn some basic HTML. Now you're ready. You jump back and work for hours on end on your new website. When you finally finish, you compare it with others on Google and … well, it doesn't exactly look like it did in your head.

       Unfortunately, that's the hard truth. Coding isn't easy. The first time you step on to a basketball court, you don't hit all your shots. The first time you sit by a piano… well, it doesn't always sound that great. It’s the same with coding. It takes a commitment to truly learn how different languages work. But those that do take the time and effort to truly understand the fundamentals of programming can make some incredible things.

       The process of learning does take some time, just as it does with anything else. It will probably take at least a couple of weeks to make a decent website, and then a year to make a great one. More often than not, everything we do and use in today's world has some connection to programming. That's why we see more and more students get started learning the basics earlier and earlier. Despite the initial challenge of learning how to code, it truly is worth it.
Here are 4 reasons to start programming young.

       1) Programming is essential for the future.
​In today's world, almost every single place we go has some connection to programming. If we are at school, we use laptops, phones, etc. At work, we use desktops, touch screens, large scale machines, all who use programming. In the early 2000s, we were using flip phones, and now only a little over 10 years later, we have smartphones with the capability to text, talk,  record, and even scan fingerprints., with text, talk, video, fingerprint/iris scanners, etc. Technology in our world is moving at an incredibly fast rate, and those that don't have a basic understanding of how these machines work will be left behind.

       2) Programming improves problem-solving
We have all seen that scene in a movie where a person types an incredibly long string of code into a computer, or even just right clicked and page sourced a website. Programs for machines nowadays need to solve for anything and everything, which means they are complex. The people who create these programs have to go through a great deal of forethought and development. They have to break down broad concepts into smaller, more doable pieces and systematically tackle the problems as they come. This process is, by definition, problem-solving. Doing this with much easier ideas at a younger age will make problem-solving much easier in the future. "Analysis of pretest and posttest results indicated that students who had successfully completed all computer programming course requirements experienced significant improvement in their overall problem skills(Journal of Computer Assisted Learning)." This statement proves that programming courses at any age, specifically when young, greatly help one's problem-solving abilities.

       3) Kids learn faster!
The statement,"Kids learn faster than adults" is something many people hear, but are skeptical about. Which begs the question is it really true? According to Abdul M. Muftau, an Innovation Fellow at EdLab(columbia.edu), "Kids have minds that are designed to learn and adults have minds designed to perform…[kids have] the ability to be very creative and learn new things. This might be a great way to help kids develop their talents while they are still young." As we can see from Mr. Muftau's research, by starting children earlier on programming, something challenging to learn later on, they will have a considerable advantage in the future whether it be for any jobs, school applications, or life in general. Programming is an essential asset in our growing technological world, and those that start early will only reap the benefits earlier.

       4) It's Fun
While it's definitely challenging at first, and at many times can make you want to pull your hair out… or even break the computer, nothing is as satisfying as conquering a problem you have been stuck on for the past hour, or watching as the page clicks keep on rolling on your website, or even as millions have fun on the game you designed. Especially now, many programs are being tailored to children, with fun and interactive courses that make even the basics fun. Programs, like scratch, make coding easy to understand for elementary school kids while volunteer organizations like CodeIt at local libraries make the next step fun and an adventure to learn.

At the end of the day, the faster you start, the easier it is. Our world is developing faster and faster, and access to programming is becoming easier and easier. It is now up to us all to just grasp the multitude or opportunities around us and start to learn the language of the future, coding.