I think the exhortations for everyone to learn coding have gotten a bit out of hand:
Kids would rather learn the Python programming language than French, a new (awesome) study by Ocado Technology suggests.
The study involved 1,000 primary school children, 1,000 secondary school children and 1,000 parents. As it turns out, six out of 10 parents would prefer their children to learn Python instead of French.
...
In secondary school, however, enthusiasm drops hard, and that is a problem, according to Paul Clarke, director of technology at Ocado.
Okay, the idea that parents would want their kids to learn coding over a second language shows how far the "everyone must code!" has gone: too far. Look, far be it from me, a programmer, to down play the importance or pleasure of coding, but c'mon people this is nuts.
The benefits of learning a second language are numerous and well documented:
You become smarter
You build multitasking skills
You stave off Alzheimer’s and dementia
Your memory improves
You become more perceptive
Your decision-making skills improve
You improve your English
The benefits of learning to code are:
Computational Problem Solving
Now, that is not nothing but it is not, for example, staving off Alzheimer's. Learning a second language is a far superior use of children's time. If you have to choose -- and you do not, actually, have to choose, by the way -- then you are much better off learning a second language. Programming is a skill. It's an important skill in the modern world, but one that is limited in usefulness in really understanding how code affects reality. Building small programs is not the same as really understanding how code works. You would be better off the basics of computer science and reading things like Code and In the Beginning was the Command Line than doing basic Javascript programs.
There is nothing wrong with learning to code. Coding has been quite lucrative and quite enjoyable for me, after all. But it is not the only outcome for educated people, and there are other skills that are better for their participants and lead to well rounded individuals. There is more to the modern world than bits; people should remember that.