• Programming as a Specific Case of a Bigger Problem
  • "computing" is not "programming" (which is an implementation detail, I would argue one that's on the "wrong level")

What then is computer literacy? It is not learning to manipulate a word processor, a spreadsheet or a modern user interface; those are paper-and-pencil skills. Computer literacy is not even learning to program. That can always be learned, in ways no more uplifting than learning grammar instead of writing. Computer literacy is contact with the activity of computing deep enough to make the computational equivalent of reading and writing fluent and enjoyable. As in all arts, a romance with the material must be well under way. If we value the lifelong learning of arts and letters as a springboard for personal and societal growth, should any less effort be spent to make computing part of our lives?

— Computer Software - Alan Kay

When Andrew Carnegie set up thousands of free public libraries in the US, each one of them had a special room where the librarians taught reading to whomever wished to learn!

— The Real Computer Revolution Hasn't Happened Yet - Alan Kay

If we want computers to be able to compute for us, then we have to accurately extract (...) models from our heads and record them. Writing Python isn't the fundamental skill we need to teach people. Modeling systems is.

(...)

Programming as it exists now forces us to model, but it does so in an unnatural way. And while teaching ourselves how to program will help us learn how to break systems down, it does so at the risk of focusing on the wrong things.

We don't want a generation of people forced to care about Unicode and UI toolkits. We want a generation of writers, biologists, and accountants that can leverage computers.

— Coding is not the new literacy - Chris Granger

• the above touches on Programming as a Specific Case of a Bigger Problem - in Chris' view "computer literacy" isn't about being able to read and write code, but being able to model dynamic systems
• the act of making dynamic models requires both - literacy (as in learning how to do so) - but also proper "interfaces" to this medium (The Incredible Power of The Right Interface) - which we don't have!