Welcome to our in-progress PK-12 guide to teaching computing! On this page, you’ll find a complete summary of all the materials we recommend, as well as links to more detailed explanations of how best to use them.
Schools Don’t Teach Nearly Enough Computer Skills
Computer skills easily rank among the most important skills for young people to learn. Nearly every modern profession uses computers heavily – including fields as diverse as medical care, banking, education, engineering, event planning, farming, and of course, programming. It’s essentially impossible to start a successful business without heavily relying on computers for the purpose of planning, management, bookkeeping, and marketing.
Unfortunately, schools seldom devote the necessary level of time and attention to teaching students how to use computers effectively. They may offer a bit of typing instruction and a basic introduction to using common productivity software (such as Microsoft Office). In some cases, they might offer a programming or computer science course as a high school elective.
This simply isn’t enough. Computers represent the most fundamental technological pillar supporting the modern economic world. They should be a similarly central pillar within any proper PK-12 curriculum – far more than the minor sideshow they currently are.
A Complete Computing Curriculum, Designed by a Professional Programmer
As I’ve mentioned in my short biography, I have extensive experience as both a programmer and a computer science educator. I’ve worked with some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, and I’ve taught software development skills to hundreds of students. Whereas many efforts to develop computing curricula for PK-12 students are led by non-programmers who lack deep insight into exactly what children need to learn, this curriculum offers a rigorous and detailed journey towards real-world computer success.
If you follow this guide, you child will achieve a level of computer expertise that leaves nearly all their peers in the dust. Doors will be opened to them in their professional lives that otherwise simply wouldn’t be accessible. At the same time, this curriculum isn’t meant to burden students with an overwhelming amount of additional work – I strongly believe in being respectful of your time and your child’s time. You’ll find that much of this curriculum involves fun games and other activities that many students will enjoy. Very little of the curriculum involves any meaningful amount of prep work, so you can jump right in at any time.
Screen Time is Not the Enemy
Many parents worry about the amount of “screen time” their children experience. Although there is some foundation to this concern, it makes the highly counter-productive error of lumping all forms of screen time into one giant bucket. This is a huge problem, because the developmental effects of different forms of screen time can be quite different. Playing an educational video game, playing a non-educational video game, watching a few random videos on TikTok, completing a programming assignment, and doing online research for an essay are all wildly different uses of screen time that have wildly different developmental value. You should be very skeptical of anyone who wants to warn you about the “dangers of screen time” without making a clear distinction between different types of screen time. It’s worth pointing out that one of the few large-scale, longitudinal studies on this topic suggests that education-related screen time actually has a positive effect on children.
As a parent, instead of trying to reduce you child’s screen time, it is better to guide them towards more beneficial uses of screen time. At Journey With a Destination, we are enthusiastic supporters of the use of modern technology for educational purposes, and our computing curriculum reflects this fact.
Avoiding Bad Screen Time
Even as we consider the many educational opportunities computers open up, it’s also important to recognize that some uses of computers genuinely are damaging to children. Social media is a serious hazard to everyone’s mental health, and young people are especially vulnerable. You should strictly prohibit them from posting information about themselves or their opinions on social media, or anywhere else on the internet. Sites like TikTok and Twitter/X, which encourage shallow, short-form thinking, should be off limits to developing minds.
Of course, setting rules is one thing, but enforcing them is another. The only reliable way to enforce rules for computer use is to prohibit children from having unsupervised access to a computer. Computers used by children should be kept in an open, well-trafficked area (such as a living room or a kitchen). As long as your child is a afraid that you might walk in at any moment, they’ll be far more reticent to overstep the boundaries you’ve established.
Avoid Smart Phones and Tablets
Another general hazard is that of smart phones and tablets. Because these devices don’t typically have a dedicated mouse and keyboard, they are poorly suited for many beneficial screen time tasks (such as programming, writing, and playing certain educational video games). At the same time, they are very well suited for bad uses of screen time (such as using social media, browsing the internet in an unfocused manner, and playing video games that are not intellectually engaging).
Making matters worse is the fact that devices are portable, and can thus be used non-stop, anywhere. They can be used as an excuse not to interact with the real world, as a veritable time machine to skip over the boring (but fundamentally formative) parts of life, and as a technological safety blanket. We strongly recommend that you avoid giving your child a smart phone or tablet; instead, use a laptop or desktop computer for their schooling.
Curriculum Summary
This curriculum is currently a work-in-progress, and we do not yet have guides for every grade level. Our existing guides are listed below.
Pre-Kindergarten: Basic Keyboard and Mouse Skills
Our computing curriculum begins with a guide to introducing Pre-K students to mouse and keyboard skills. In a world filled with touch screens, it is unfortunately becoming increasingly common for children to never fully develop these skills. By following this guide, you’ll be able to start your child on the path to using computers effectively.
Kindergarten: Introduction to Typing
Although many schools don’t bother to teach typing until much later grades, we recommend that you introduce the concept as early as possible. This guide will provide you tips and the resources you need in order to help your Kindergartener begin typing.