Friday, May 14, 2021

Enriching Education: Why Kids Should Learn Python Today

There are several programming languages one can learn today and they vary in complexity, syntax and application, among other things. But if your kid is looking to start his / her coding journey, then learning Python is your best bet. A general purpose, high-level programming language, Python was conceived in the late 1980s by Guido van Rossum at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in the Netherlands as a successor to ABC programming language. Today, it is a very popular language and an ideal choice for beginners, including kids and teens. 


Below are the main reasons why kids should learn coding today… 



  • Easy-to-learn: Python is also one of the easiest programming languages to learn. Python syntax reads like English; plus, it allows programmers to write concepts in fewer lines of code. Typically, Python codes can be executed much faster than other programming languages. Indeed, this makes Python a good coding language to start with, especially for kids and beginners.


  • Most popular coding language today: Python is a general purpose, high-level programming language. It’s also one of the most popular programming languages in the world now. In fact, it climbed from third place to tie for second in the 2020 ranking of programming language popularity published by the analyst firm RedMonk and its popularity continues to soar with each passing year.

  • Extensive documentation and tutorials available: Python has a huge coding community for support and this, in turn, makes working on complex Python applications a lot easier. Created more than 30 years ago, Python has grown a lot over time and has enough documentation to support developers with varying skill and experience. There is also no dearth of guides and video tutorials for Python language. This makes it very easy for young students to get introduced to computer science through Python language.

  • Enjoys support from top colleges: Python has also won favor from the majority of the top computer science college programs; it is the first language they prefer to teach as part of their computer science curriculum. This means that kids who have studied Python earlier and are thus familiar with the coding language will have an edge over others when they join college and have Python in their curriculum.

  • Extensive network of Python libraries: Python has many libraries that one can use to optimise one’s time and effort during development. So there’s matplotib for plotting charts and graphs; SciPy for engineering applications, science, and mathematics;  BeautifulSoup for HTML parsing and XML; NumPy for scientific computing and Django for server-side web development, to name a few.

  • Scores high on versatility, efficiency, speed and reliability fronts: Python can be used in many types of environments such as mobile applications, desktop applications, web development, hardware programming, and many more. This makes it a highly versatile coding language. It’s also very efficient, highly reliable and fast.

  • Ideal for experimentation: Python as a coding language is quite flexible; unlike many other languages, it allows developers to try something different. So someone proficient in Python can try his / her hand at making something altogether new.

  • Cross-industry appeal: Python is used in almost every industry now as it is compatible with all kinds of applications. Some of the fields where Python is widely used are Big Data Analytics, Internet of Things (IOT), Full Stack Web Development, Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

  • Backed by the corporate world: A programming language is likely to grow faster in the presence of support from the corporate sector. So while Oracle and Sun support Java and Microsoft supports Visual Basic & C#, Python has found support from Facebook, Amazon Web Services and Google. In fact, many of Google’s applications and platforms use Python.

  • Preferred choice for automation: Given the availability of several tools and modules in Python, it is a good choice for automation of tasks. In fact, one can carry out advanced automation using Python.

    Today there are many available resources for kids to start learning Python. While there is no dearth of free learning resources, it is recommended to look up a good online class for kids that comes with greater accountability. California-based YoungWonks is a top after-school coding program for kids and teens in the San Francisco Bay Area. Offering students a world-class introduction to electronics and computer science, it allows them to unleash their creativity by creating new programs and electronic devices from off-the-shelf electronics hardware. YoungWonks students’ achievements include first prizes at the RoboRave International 2018, RoboRave California 2018 and RoboRave US National 2017.

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