The first question: Are children really interested in playing chess, painting and calligraphy?

I have written many articles about the benefits of learning programming before, so I won't go into details here.

Here, the author quotes Confucius, a sage in the field of education in China, as saying in The Analects of Confucius: "Confucius said: Take Tao as the purpose, virtue as the basis, benevolence as the basis, and swim in the art", that is to say, each of us should aspire to the world, judge things according to moral standards, handle things according to the heart of fraternity, and swim in the six arts every day. The entertainment here is what we call games now, in which the art is six arts, including ceremony, music, shooting, imperial, literature and number.

Six arts are now called sociology, art, military, engineering, liberal arts and science. It can be seen that Confucius hopes that our Chinese descendants will develop six major disciplines at the same time. In ancient times, children could write poems and do meticulous couplets at the age of three. Now, before your children can speak fluently, they go to learn piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. Isn't this a mistake?

In fact, children only learn two of them, music and math, and the other four courses are abandoned. Perhaps, you will feel that children are like this now, and they are nothing. However, have you ever thought that the children of China 100 years ago were the Sixth Art Plenary Session, that is to say, your children are not as good as your grandfather's grandfather, and each generation is not as good as the next. Is it true that your family is closely related to each other?

The second question: Does learning programming really have nothing to do with the so-called piano, chess, calligraphy and painting?

Six arts gradually developed into engineering, including computer science. Therefore, children's learning programming is not something that many people say is western, nor is it like piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, but China's learning since ancient times. You may say that art has never changed, and programming is a new "change". I want to ask you, Chinese classical music was oral sex during Qin Shihuang's period. Can your child do it? I guess you don't even know what's fake. Hahahaha ... and programming, from straw rope counting, abacus calculation, algebra, circuits, microelectronics, artificial intelligence, passed down from generation to generation, where is the new "change"?

Let's start with the stem of the word "game". In fact, it has always been called entertainment, swimming refers to soaring, and art is the study of six arts. It originally meant that everyone should soar in the ocean of knowledge. According to the author's preliminary research, the word "entertainment as a game" originated from the fact that after the Mongol-Yuan Empire destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, Nanren (referring to the Southern Song Dynasty in the Mongol-Yuan period, which was basically the old name of China Nanren) was selected as an actor with good looks and good voice in Beijing, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty. In order to manage and belittle southerners, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty turned entertainment into an insulting "game". I don't understand. An Internet giant in China is proud of playing games. Is it true that their boss is a descendant of Genghis Khan's Mongolian gold family?

Finally, the current Internet industry is very eager for talents. Why can't parents see that it is too early to learn programming?

Many parents think that learning programming means playing games and not studying hard. However, games are also learning. Children should not be addicted to games, but should be properly guided, from playing games to analyzing games to designing games. In this process, children learn a lot of computer thinking methods and master the rigorous thinking methods to deal with problems step by step. Study hard, make progress every day and become a useful person to society as soon as possible.

Author: Teacher CC (Qin Cong)

Senior teacher of editing and playing, bachelor of educational technology from Beijing Normal University, master of educational technology from Beijing Jiaotong University, and visiting scholar from College of Education, University of Pennsylvania, USA.

Learning while editing-focusing on programming education for children aged 7- 16, a time-honored institution in the industry. Smart children like to make up while learning! ※!