There’s merit behind the bill recently filed by State Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, that would allow high school students to replace their two-year foreign language graduation requirement with two years of computer coding courses. In an ever-technologically-connected marketplace, it makes sense to link important career skills with classroom priorities. And not everyone has an aptitude for foreign language.
“Why can’t code be a language?” rhetorically asks Ring. Good point.
But one caveat. This shouldn’t be presented as an either/or choice.
Computer coding can be embedded in the math-science curriculum. But life is not all STEM prep. High school is more than a techie trade school. It’s also about expanded cultural, historical and geographical horizons–an area of glaring deficit in this country. And familiarity with, say, Spanish in Florida can be as occupationally practical as it is linguistically fulfilling.
Students who can should be encouraged to do both.