People do need to spell, and the majority of the population is even worse than illiterate by the author's standards.
A universal desire to teach people to read has the same pitfalls, but nobody argues against that. Why? Because reading opens a door to a world of information that you didn't have access to before.
Coding is similar, except that it opens the door to the world the author describes: the creative world where you get to take the ideas in your head and make them code incarnate, and appreciate the beauty of algorithms and all of that. The distinction is obvious, but so is the required progression if we want this process to start with kids.
EDIT: that the ADULTS proposing this stuff don't know the difference is troubling.
A universal desire to teach people to read has the same pitfalls, but nobody argues against that. Why? Because reading opens a door to a world of information that you didn't have access to before.
Coding is similar, except that it opens the door to the world the author describes: the creative world where you get to take the ideas in your head and make them code incarnate, and appreciate the beauty of algorithms and all of that. The distinction is obvious, but so is the required progression if we want this process to start with kids.
EDIT: that the ADULTS proposing this stuff don't know the difference is troubling.