Programming Teaches Logic to Kids

Promoting Classical Education and Charlotte Mason, Too

by Phyllis Wheeler

Many homeschoolers teach using the classical method. In a nutshell, this is it: you stuff the kids with facts when they are young, teach them logic in middle school, and teach them to identify and challenge assumptions when they are in high school. It's a formula that's worked for a very long time--since about 500 BC.

Let's zero in on the teaching of logic starting in middle school. I think there is room here to teach a very modern type of logic-- the type used in computer programming. It's a lot like solving puzzles, but it's more creative. And with the Logo computer language, it's especially interesting to kids.

Classical education involves three stages: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. In the grammar stage, which corresponds to grammar school up to age 12, the child is adept at memorizing facts. After age 12, he is able to grasp logical concepts and works on analyzing, comparing, and contrasting. At age 16, in the rhetoric stage he is able to find logic flaws and persuade others, taught by the Socratic method where the teacher raises questions and the students discuss them.

Over the years, educators including Charlotte Mason began to suggest another avenue for teaching young children: learning by doing.

Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist (1896-1980), carefully observed young children learning. His experiments showed the critical role of action and exploring for kids who are learning.

Kids can handle simple child-centered logic when as young as 7, said Piaget. They also need to explore in order to learn. A disciple of Piaget's, Seymour Papert of MIT, took both of those assertions in the 1960's and helped create Logo, a computer language for children--even those as young as the 7-11 age group.

The computer provides a marvelous tool for learning by exploring, says Papert. "It's one thing for a child to play a computer game; it's another thing altogether for a child to build his or her own game. In building his own game, the child hypothesizes, explores, experiments, evaluates, and draws conclusions. In short, he learns." (Interview by Dan Schwartz posted at http://www.papert.org/articles/
GhostInTheMachine.html)

The Logo logic can be very simple--drawing a box or a triangle using a set of commands to a turtle on the screen. It's so easy that any child over the age of 7 who is able to type a few letters can do it.

But Logo logic also can be more complex, at a middle school level, and very complex, at a high school level. It is a robust computer language with modern capabilities.

So how does Logo fit in with classical education? In the middle school years, the logic stage. Those middle schoolers can be working on reasoning, and they can also be working on the logic used by a computer as it steps through a program. There are many similarities, ideal for those developing brains!

While we're looking at homeschooling philosophies, let's not forget Charlotte Mason and her emphasis on learning by doing. This is just exactly what a child does who is teaching an on-screen turtle to draw a box. And he’s enjoying it too.

In fact, it's my experience that kids love working with Logo. You give them an achievable goal, and they work like busy bees, experimenting with this and that until it works. They love the creative aspect, too--tailoring each project with their preferences. My son Paul (age 11) made an army camp instead of a bunch of houses, and set up a race involving eagles ascending the mountain of Minas Tirith, Middle Earth. What could your child come up with?--Phyllis Wheeler

Middle-school and high-school kids can learn computer programming and create Web sites using Phyllis Wheeler’s self-study books. Get a free Internet scavenger hunt download at www.MotherboardBooks.com.

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