Basic skills in medicine and accounting are useful to have and sort of prevalent. I'm sure you put on a band-aid before. Basic skills in automating certain computer tasks seem to be valuable to many people -- almost all office workers, I'd wager.
I don't see how that devalues the profession. There's a huge difference between what people can achieve using stuff like this and what I do every day.
Maybe basic skills in stuff like this will even translate to a better appreciation of what professional developers do. A guy can dream...
When it comes to programming, 'putting on a band-aid' is analagous to 'entering user/pass credentials'. Yes, everyone can put on a band-aid, just like everyone can log on to something. Neither take skill or understanding, and both are 'just things you do'.
On a tangent, a great many people have positively woeful understanding of biology. I think biology should be a mandatory subject in high school. After all, the one thing that absolutely every human has and uses throughout their entire life is their body; that can't be said of pretty much any other high school subject.
I don't see how that devalues the profession. There's a huge difference between what people can achieve using stuff like this and what I do every day.
Maybe basic skills in stuff like this will even translate to a better appreciation of what professional developers do. A guy can dream...