Hop in Kids, the Coding Express is Taking you to Destination Prosperity

 Social media has become an indispensable part of human life. Hardly any dispute can arise here.   Earlier, I would've made a minor change, and affirmed that social media is thriving amongst the young adult population. However, the elders in my house restrict me from doing so. Facebook videos have emerged as a popular source for healthy recipes and home medicine. I guess we can agree that social media advertisements do get on our nerves. Every third post on Facebook is an advertisement. Often, I am left questioning its relevance. I got a suggestion about horse feed once. Perhaps someone heard me speaking about my desire to be a Western Cowboy. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented new opportunities for social media handlers. Social media marketing has gained immense traction, and studies show that there has been an increment of about 10% in social media usage during the lockdown period in India.

Recently, an ad from a prominent company caught my attention. They professed to reveal the gospel truth. Unsurprisingly, I clicked on the same, and it diverted to me to a webpage that stated "Coding for Kids". Their conspicuous product offering dropdown had a beginners course, which was aimed at Standard 1 students. In India, grade 1 usually starts at age 5. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, to be honest. The gospel truth, my friends, has been revealed. Teach the kids to code, as they'll end up in Silicon Valley with six-figure income in freshly minted US$ ONLY WITH OUR PRODUCT. Fascinating, isn't it? A gullible individual like me may find it to be marvellous initially. However, let us dig a little more and try finding perspectives. 

Detractors point out the use of rote learning and a higher focus on science and technology as a substantial drawback of the Indian education system. Even in standard 11, students are being forced to choose between the science stream and commerce stream. However, with the reformation in education through the National Education Policy, it is expected that there will be a tremendous focus on the holistic development of the individuals. Multifariousness in subjects is being sought, and the worship of marks is expected to be watered down. Amidst this, here come these coding gurus who claim to have cracked the multi-millionaire artifice. Let me clear the air here. Coding depends on logic. In this era of digitization, coding can help an individual prosper in the long run. The start-up revolution in India is being driven by the technology industry that relies heavily on coding. My reservation is on the marketing strategy that is being deployed by these EduTech intellectuals. They have triumphantly mastered the art of milking the insecurities of the parents, especially amongst the middle class and lower-middle-class when it comes to the future of their wards. 

In India, IIT-JEE coaching begins as early as class 4 and 5. While growing up, remarks like, " Once you enter IIT, your life is set" isn't uncommon. Immense pressure is being added on the fragile minds of students who are forced to attend these classes just because everyone else is doing so. You are passionate about music? You're a budding actor? Your interest is in writing? You can connect to nature with ease and want to become an environmentalist? You like mimicry? Excellent! You can persevere these once you finish graduation. Engineering has emerged as a preliminary qualification these days. Once the graduates are wise enough to think for themselves, they drop their field of study and pursue other opportunities based on their tastes. Interestingly, in the U.S., studies show that even though 20% of the engineering students are women, more than 40% drop out of the field after leaving college. This number is significantly higher in India. At the end of the day, if it was not engineering that you wanted to pursue, was it really worth the amount of time and resources that you had spent for a piece of B.Tech certificate? If your time is worth Rs.50 per hour, what is the monetary loss that you have incurred in those years? The point is, why this obsession with engineering? When it seemed like the tide was turning, and the students were being increasingly encouraged to pursue other domains, the coding gurus are barging in.

These companies follow a modus operandi. The basic strategy is, "If you do not teach your kids to code/if you do not use our product, you're laying a foundation for them to doom in the future". They point out cases from the U.S. wherein a 15-year-old kid emerged as a millionaire after he learnt to code. Companies like Google and Microsoft are waiting for these coding geniuses. Money, at the end of the day, is what matters. Educating about human values like empathy and compassion? Humbug! How disreputable! How will he make money and be successful if he doesn't understand the basics of printing "Hello World" in three programming languages before he turns 10? How will he become successful if he doesn't know that python is not just a snake, but the programming language of the future? Remarkably, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation. If a conspiracy theory arises concerning the spread of COVID-19 virus by online education providers, I wouldn't be surprised if there are people who advocate the same. Sales professionals in these organizations are being tasked with unreasonable sales target as mainstream education has taken a severe hit. The burden on students as a result of regular online classes and tuitions is enormous. On top of this, they are being introduced to the world of coding. Why, you wonder? Because, my friends, coding is the Holy Grail, and its consumption promises an eternal life filled with prosperity.

There is a capitalist argument that supports these practices. The market essentially decides whether a product becomes successful or not. It drives on the concept of supply and demand. There is a demand for these classes amongst parents, as they want their kids to be the next Bill Gates. If the demand is less, then there is an infusion of fear in the parent's mind regarding the inevitability of failure in the absence of these courses, thereby creating an artificial demand. From an economic viewpoint, the theory is unblemished. However, the success of the market doesn't mean that it is ethical or even essential. The creation of artificial demand should be discouraged. Similar marketing gimmicks were deployed for the sale of cigarettes amongst women in the U.S. 

Advertisements in the second half of the 20th century portrayed women who were regular smokers to be independent, equal and strong. The concept spread like a Californian wildfire. Cigarettes started to be associated with freedom and liberty amidst the second wave of feminism in the U.S. The marketers tapped into the insecurity amongst women. Women who did not smoke were considered meek. Fast forward this episode, smoking is claiming the lives of around 202,000 women annually in the U.S. I would even dare say that the world would have been a safer place without the use of tobacco products. Likewise, we need to call out these professional marketers who are benefiting from our insecurity. Even uneducated and poor parents are being pressured to take loans to pay for these courses. And they fall for the charm of the smartly dressed English speaking professionals who proclaim to be the second coming of Jesus Christ and have the ability to propel them out of poverty by creating coding robots.

Psychologists are unanimous when they claim that the psychological development of a child is of the utmost importance in shaping their future. Jean Piaget, for instance, suggests that there are four stages of cognitive development in children. In all these stages, the child understands how the world around him behaves, and tries to draw logical conclusions from the events occurring around him. Language learning through mimicking is a major part of a child's development. Introducing coding concepts through building blocks can be entertaining, and help in their development. There are ongoing debated regarding the same. 

However, I wonder whether this is actually a necessity at the age of 5? What happened to the concept of allowing the child to explore the surroundings to learn about different animals and plants, especially about the weird looking insects? What happened to taking them to a water source and introducing them to fries during the monsoon season? What happened to those days when the only thing that you worried at the age of 5 was whether Santa Claus would visit you during Christmas and you would receive gifts for being in his good books? Where is the concept of leaving them with their grandparents who introduce them to the world of Indian mythology? Why isn't anyone stressing on the importance of Panchatantra and Aesop's fables which teach them valuable life lessons? Who will teach them those folklores that promote critical thinking? Where are those days when kids became joyous when the raindrops poured from the heavens above? When did it become important not to allow them to break items, only to discover that handling the product in a certain way causes it to break? Why is the interaction with other kids not being encouraged, especially when they're being locked up in their homes during these troubling times? Is there enough time to learn to code after you visit the parks and get your shorts dirtied by using the slides? Is it really that important to teach them the basics of coding when they can have fun using watercolours and crayons? Has the human race plunged into a state where we need the kids to help out in the various industry by being excellent coders?  

I do not know. Maybe I am old fashioned. Maybe I do not understand the relevance of coding. Maybe I am not modernizing myself to embrace the digital era. However, I am certain of this. I wouldn't trade the childhood I had even if it means I will emerge as the top coder in India. For me, the holistic development of a child is what matters. More importantly, I will not allow the coding gurus to tamper with the minds of these kids by introducing algorithmic concepts which they do not need to learn then. Even if they do, it certainly wouldn't be through the introduction of fear and mass hysteria amongst parents. Whether the child is as good as the IBM supercomputer is something that I do not give any hoots about.  

My concern is uncomplicated. Education shouldn't be like the lending business, wherein there is a cutthroat competition to convert sales leads. Child education is not just about coding. Coding can be learnt when they grow up. They are bound to code if they are interested. The schools will take care of that in the future. Furthermore, open-source platforms such as code.org, Codecademy, Khan Academy, etc., are providing free resources to help students grasp coding concepts with ease. The amount which is obtained through lending and borrowing isn't necessary to become a coder. While trying to get ahead of others in becoming a better individual, we shouldn't forget the importance of being a better human being first. After all, we are called Homo Sapiens, and not Homo SuperComputerurs. Do not let the child be pressured at an early age, especially when they should be exploring the world around them. It is okay to watch Tom and Jerry and Chota Bheem. Discovery Science which teaches you about the functioning of the Cosmos needn't be forced. Do not fall for the highly oiled marketing strategies of these companies. Tomorrow, they might quote the Mahabharatha, and come up with coding classes for pregnant women. They'll say that Abhimanyu could crack the Chakravyuha since his mother listened to Arjuna when he was still in her womb. Likewise, your kid can emerge as a supreme coding ninja once you listen to our classes when you are pregnant. The product would be called "Coding Abhimanyu".

Wait, I shouldn't be giving them ideas, right?

In this digital world, I do not think that we must remain grooved onto the internet and have more interactions with the machines any more than we currently do. Human connections are vital for our existence as social animals. Otherwise, would we be different from the Artificial Intelligence algorithms that are being created by humans?

Children are not machines, and shouldn't be treated like one. Sorry coding, you can wait.  

 

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