Sheila MacNeill: Not knowing how to code is a privilege for me and a reflection of a sexist-and-not-knowing-how-teach-math-properly-culture when growing up
Pontifications
- My tl;dr of Sheila MacNeill’s Why don’t I code?: Not knowing how to code is a privilege for me and a reflection of a sexist-and-not-knowing-how-teach-math-properly-culture when growing up.
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I’m also still a bit scared of code and programming. Irrational I know – but I might just actually break the internet 🙂
However, Tony’s post has really made me think. My irrational fear stems back to my early educational experiences. When I was at school and personal computers were coming of age it was made very clear that programming wasn’t for the likes of me – a girl, not great at maths, not really interested in computers.
Those biased assumptions still lurk in the recesses of my psyche. That’s why another bigger part of me does really support and believe in the need for continued support for getting young girls in particular into coding early. It’s really important to know how things work, how as Tony says, easy it is to get things done and not just let others do it for you. Of increasing importance now is being able to articulate what you think systems should do for you, to challenge how “stuff” (aka data) is stored, collected, used/abused. Knowing about programming provides another way to have informed discussions about many, many other things.
So maybe I should make the time to learn to code a bit more and not abuse my privilege of letting others do everything for me."
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- Just like it’s never too late to take up running, cross-country skiing, hiking, long walks, swimming or any athletic hobby that’s not super dangerous or onerous in order to explore and expand your physical self, it’s never too late to take up programming in order to expand and explore your mental self.