MILL VALLEY, Calif. — Seven-year-old Jordan Lisle, a second grader, joined his family at a packed after-hours school event last month aimed at inspiring a new interest: computer programming.加州米尔谷——上个月，7岁的小学二年级学生乔丹·莱尔(Jordan Lisle)和家人参与了一场人满为患的课外活动，活动目的为学生培育一个新的嗜好：计算机编程。“I’m a little afraid he’s falling behind,” his mother, Wendy Lisle, said, explaining why they had signed up for the class at Strawberry Point Elementary School.“我有点担忧他不会落在别人后面，”他的母亲温迪·莱尔(Wendy Lisle)说道，这是他们甄选参与斯特罗伯里波因特小学(Strawberry Point Elementary School)这个辅导班的原因。

The event was part of a national educational movement in computer coding instruction that is growing at Internet speeds. Since December, 20,000 teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade have introduced coding lessons, according to Code.org, a group backed by the tech industry that offers free curriculums. In addition, some 30 school districts have agreed to add coding classes in the fall, mainly in high schools but in lower grades, too. And policy makers in nine states have begun awarding the same credits for computer science classes that they do for basic math and science courses, rather than treating them as electives.一场全国性计算机编程教育运动正在不断扩大，此次活动就是其中的一部分。根据Code.org网站，自去年12月以来，从幼儿园到12年级，共计2万名老师开办了编程课。Code.org是一家由科技行业反对的的组织，获取免费的课程。

除此之外，约30个校区早已表示同意在秋季加设编程课，主要是高中，但也还包括低年级。九个州的决策者早已开始给计算机科学课原作与数学和理科等基础课程完全相同的学分，仍然将其作为科目来对待。

There are after-school events, too, like the one in Mill Valley, where 70 parents and 90 children, from kindergartners to fifth graders, huddled over computers solving animated puzzles to learn the basics of computer logic.涉及的课外活动也在积极开展，比如在米尔谷的这次活动。活动中，从幼儿园到五年级的90个学生和70名家长城外在计算机旁，通过动画智力游戏来自学计算机逻辑的基本知识。

It is a stark change for computer science, which for decades was treated like a stepchild, equated with trade classes like wood shop. But smartphones and apps are ubiquitous now, and engineering careers are hot. To many parents — particularly ones here in the heart of the technology corridor — coding looks less like an extracurricular activity and more like a basic life skill, one that might someday lead to a great job or even instant riches.这是计算机科学教育的一个明显转变，几十年来，计算机科学仍然受到冷遇，地位与木工课等职业技能课程相差无几。但如今，智能手机和应用程序无处不在，软件工程方面的就业机会炙手可热。对于许多家长来说——特别是在是居住于在科技走廊核心地带的家长——编程不看起来一种课外活动，更加看起来一种基本的存活技能，说不定哪天有可能让你获得一份不俗的工作，甚至一夕暴富。

The spread of coding instruction, while still nascent, is “unprecedented — there’s never been a move this fast in education,” said Elliot Soloway, a professor of education and computer science at the University of Michigan. He sees it as very positive, potentially inspiring students to develop a new passion, perhaps the way that teaching frog dissection may inspire future surgeons and biologists.编程教学的普及虽然刚刚开始，却呈现“前所未有之势——教育领域从未有过如此很快的行动”，密歇根大学(University of Michigan)教育和计算机科学教授埃利奥特·索洛韦(Elliot Soloway)说道。他指出这是一个十分大力的现象，可能会唤起学生们培育新的嗜好，也许就像自学青蛙解剖学可能会让更加多孩子立志沦为外科医生和生物学家那样。But the momentum for early coding comes with caveats, too. It is not clear that teaching basic computer science in grade school will beget future jobs or foster broader creativity and logical thinking, as some champions of the movement are projecting. And particularly for younger children, Dr. Soloway said, the activity is more like a video game — better than simulated gunplay, but not likely to impart actual programming skills.不过，一些人也对让儿童过早认识编程的作法收到警告。

目前还不确切，在小学讲授计算机科学的基本知识否不会对未来的工作有协助，也不确切这能否培育学生总体上的创造力和逻辑思维。索洛韦说道，特别是在是对年幼的儿童来说，这种活动更加看起来视频游戏——比仿真枪战高级一些，但不太可能学会确实的编程技能。Some educators worry about the industry’s heavy role: Major tech companies and their founders, including Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, have put up about $10 million for Code.org. The organization pays to train high school teachers to offer more advanced curriculums, and, for younger students, it has developed a coding curriculum that marries basic instruction with video games involving Angry Birds and hungry zombies.一些教育专家对这个行业的乘机投放回应忧虑：一些大型科技公司及其创始人，还包括比尔·盖茨(Bill Gates)和Facebook的马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckberg)，早已为Code.org投资了约1000万美元（约合6255万人民币）。

Code.org获取资金培训高中老师，让他们需要讲授更加高级的课程，此外，对于年龄更加小的学生，该的组织还研发了一套专门的编程课程，把基本的教学内容带入到了《气愤的小鸟》和《植物大战僵尸》等视频游戏中。The lessons do not involve traditional computer language. Rather, they use simple word commands — like “move forward” or “turn right” — that children can click on and move around to, say, direct an Angry Bird to capture a pig.这些课程不讲授传统的计算机语言，而是用于非常简单的文字指令——比如“行进”或“向右转”——孩子们可以通过页面和移动的操作者，让一只小鸟逃跑一只猪。

The movement comes with no shortage of “we’re changing the world” marketing fervor from Silicon Valley. “This is strategically significant for the economy of the United States,” said John Pearce, a technology entrepreneur. He and another entrepreneur, Jeff Leane, have started a nonprofit, MV Gate, to bring youth and family coding courses developed by Code.org to Mill Valley, an affluent suburb across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.这项活动并不缺乏硅谷的那种“我们正在转变世界”的营销疯狂。科技创业者约翰·皮尔斯(John Pearce)说道，这对美国的经济具备战略意义。他和另外一名创业者杰夫·利恩(Jeff Leane)创立了非盈利的组织MV Gate，把Code.org研发的限于于小学生和家庭的编程课程带来米尔谷。

米尔谷是一个富足的郊区，与旧金山之间隔着金门大桥。Parents love the idea of giving children something to do with computers that they see as productive, Mr. Pearce said. “We have any number of parents who say, ‘I can’t take my kid playing one more hour of video games,’ ” he said. But if the children are exploring coding, the parents tell him, “ ‘I can live with that all night long.’ ”皮尔斯说道，家长们乐意看见孩子们在电脑上做到他们指出有意义的事。“无数家长对我们说道，‘我无法让我家孩子再行玩游戏电脑游戏了’，”他说道。但如果孩子们在研究编程，家长们告诉他，“‘编成一晚上我也没有意见。

’”The concept has caught on with James Meezan, a second grader. He attended one of the first “Hour of Code” events sponsored by MV Gate in December with his mother, Karen Meezan, the local PTA president and a former tech-industry executive who now runs a real estate company. She is among the enthusiastic supporters of the coding courses, along with several local principals.这个点子更有了二年级学生詹姆斯·米赞(James Meezan)。他和妈妈参与了12月份由MV Gate反对的“代码时刻”(Hour of Code)活动。

他的妈妈凯伦·米赞是当地家长教师联谊会(PTA)主席、前科技行业高管，目前经营着一家房地产公司。她和几名当地校长都十分反对编程课程。Her son, she said, does well in school but had not quite found his special interest and was “not the fastest runner on the playground.” But he loves programming and spends at least an hour a week at CodeKids, after-school programs organized by MV Gate and held at three of Mill Valley’s five elementary schools.她说道，她的儿子在学校展现出很好，但是没寻找自己尤其的兴趣，也“不是操场上跑完的最慢的那个”。

但他讨厌编程，每周最少花上一小时参与MV Gate的组织的课后项目CodeKids。该项目早已在米尔谷的五所小学积极开展。

James, 8, explained that programming is “getting the computer to do something by itself.” It is fun, he said, and, besides, if he gets good, he might be able to do stuff like get a computer to turn on when it has suddenly died. His mother said he had found his niche; when it comes to programming, “he is the fastest runner.”八岁的詹姆斯说明说道，编程就是“让计算机自己行事”。他说道这很有意思，此外，如果他做到的好，说不定需要让计算机忽然死机的时候自动重新启动。他的妈妈说，他找到了自己的兴趣点；在编程上，“他是跑完的最慢的那一个”。

Well into the session, the youngsters were digging in, moving basic command blocks to get the Angry Bird to its prey, and then playing with slightly more complex commands like “repeat” and learning about “if-then” statements, an elemental coding concept.活动过程中，现场的孩子都仅有情投放，移动着基本的指令模块，让气愤的小鸟到达目标，然后用于略为简单一些的命令，比如“反复”，并自学“if-then”语句——一个基本的编程概念。The use of these word-command blocks to simplify coding logic stems largely from the work of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, which introduced a visual programming language called Scratch in 2007. It claims a following of millions of users, but mostly outside the schools.用于这些文字命令块来修改编程的逻辑，这相当大程度上源自麻省理工学院媒体实验室(Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab)的研究成果。

这个实验室2007年引进了视觉编程语言Scratch。该机构声称，这种编程语言早已有数百万用户，但大多数都是学校以外的用户。Then, in 2013, came Code.org, which borrowed basic Scratch ideas and aimed to spread the concept among schools and policy makers. Computer programming should be taught in every school, said Hadi Partovi, the founder of Code.org and a former executive at Microsoft. He called it as essential as “learning about gravity or molecules, electricity or photosynthesis.”后来，2013年经常出现了Code.org，它糅合了Scratch的基本点子，目的向学校和决策者传播这个概念。

Code.org创始人、前微软公司高管哈迪·帕尔托维(Hadi Partovi)说道，每个学校都应当教授编程。他说道编程十分适当，就像“自学重力或分子，电学和光合作用”一样。

Among the 20,000 teachers who Code.org says have signed on is Alana Aaron, a fifth-grade math and science teacher in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. She heard about the idea late last year at a professional development meeting and, with her principal’s permission, swapped a two-month earth sciences lesson she was going to teach on land masses for the Code.org curriculum.Code.org称之为，有数2万名老师登记该项目。曼哈顿华盛顿高地社区五年级的数学和自然科学老师阿兰娜·亚伦(Alana Aaron)是其中之一。她去年在一个职业发展会议上听闻了这个项目，在取得了校长表示同意之后，她退出了原本想教授的将近两个月的关于陆地的地球科学课程，将其替换成了Code.org的课程。

“Computer science is big right now — in our country, the world,” she said. “If my kids aren’t exposed to things like that, they could miss out on potential opportunities and careers.”“计算机科学现在很最重要——在美国和全世界都是如此，”她说道。“如果我的学生们没认识到这样的东西，他们可能会错失潜在的机遇和工作机会。

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