Parents who want to teach their children programming are often stunned by the abundance of opportunities - which language to choose? Everyone knows about JavaScript, but someone has heard that it bends... Maybe PHP, the main language of the Internet?.. Or dive in and jump right into C?
For us, people who have been developing for a long time, the main criterion is obvious: we need to use the language that makes it easiest for a child to write programs in. This means that it should have as little abstraction as possible, and the syntax should be clear and transparent. According to these metrics, Python is the best choice. As a matter of fact, it is now called “the best first programming language”. This is true both for adult beginners and when you are teaching programming to children.
But a low entry threshold is not everything. It is important that language proficiency offers maximum prospects. And here Python is also the best option: its popularity is only growing from year to year, due to the fact that it is used in the most promising areas of IT development. YouTube, Dropbox, Google, Quora, Instagram, Spotify, Reddit — all these projects are written in Python. Although, as mentioned above, there are currently more PHP sites, the most promising and active traffic comes through Python resources.
Web development is far from the main area where this language is used. If your child learns to program in Python, they will find the way to artificial intelligence systems and highly professional data science. Data Science experts are now being hired by a wide variety of companies, where they are pursuing fast-paced careers. After all, information is the new oil, and everyone wants to turn data stored on servers into a source of profit. Python provides a complete set of tools for working with information: identifying hidden trends and predicting future events, creating complex analytical models, developing self-learning systems and robots.
Why is Python so good for beginners? The creators of this language sought to achieve an intuitive programming style and make programs lighter by getting rid of the heaps of code for which the same C languages are famous. Thanks to this, learning to program in Python is much faster - students physically have to learn less material. This is especially important in the case of children's courses, because perseverance is not typical for young people.
Python has a huge community of developers around the world, so any question can be answered quickly. The main language of communication is English, so in the process the child will be able to train these abilities as well. And of course, once he has Python in his luggage, it will be much easier for him to learn other programming languages as well. Just like in everyday life - if you learn French, you can easily learn Italian and Spanish. And after a third language, linguists say, a habit forms, and new adverbs can be strung like beads on a thread.
We recommend Python to high school students. If your child has not yet reached this level, it is better to take a closer look at Scratch or Snap. These languages are functionally similar to Python, so we consider them as preparation for immersion in adult programming.
