【衛報】編程學習要從娃娃抓起

大數據與人工智慧時代正在到來，編程能力逐漸成為所有人需要掌握的核心技能之一。英國計算機先驅斯蒂芬妮·雪莉表示，編程學習要趁早。有證據表明，孩子接觸簡單編程活動的最佳年齡階段是2至7歲。對女孩而言，儘早接觸編程有助於改善學校、科技行業乃至人們觀念上「男性更適合編程」的性別刻板印象的現狀。

計算機先驅：編程應從兩歲學起

譯者：李蘇苑& 趙萌萌

校對：徐嘉茵

策劃：鄒世昌

Two-year-olds should learn to code, says computing pioneer

計算機先驅：編程應從兩歲學起

本文選自 The Guardian| 取經號原創翻譯

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Early start would encourage women to become programmers and reduce gender stereotyping, argues Stephanie Shirley

編程學習要趁早，這不僅可以鼓勵女性把編程當事業，還可以減少性別刻板印象，斯蒂芬妮·雪莉如是說。

Children as young as two should be introduced to the basics of coding, according to one of Britain』s most eminent computing pioneers.

斯蒂芬妮·雪莉是英國最傑出的計算機先驅之一，她認為，小朋友早在兩歲就應該接觸編程基礎。

Dame Stephanie Shirley, whose company was one of the first to sell software in the 1960s, said that engaging very young children – in particular girls – could ignite a passion for puzzles and problem-solving long before the 「male geek」 stereotype took hold.

斯蒂芬妮·雪莉的公司是20世紀60年代最早銷售軟體的公司之一。她說，讓年紀非常小的孩子，尤其是女孩接觸編程，可以在她們形成「男孩理科好」的固化觀念前，激發她們對智力遊戲和解決問題的激情。

「I don』t think you can start too early,」 she said, adding that evidence suggested that the best time to introduce children to simple coding activities was between the ages of two and seven years. 「Most successful later coders start between five and six,」 she added. 「In a sense, those years are the best for learning anything … and means that programming hasn』t become set in your mind as geeky or nerdy.」

「我認為越早開始學習越好，」 她說，有證據表明，孩子接觸簡單編程活動的最佳年齡階段是2－7歲。「大多數成功的程序員是從5－6歲開始學習的，」她補充道，「從某種意義上講，那是學習任何事物的黃金年齡……也意味著那個年齡的孩子還沒形成思維定式，不覺得編程是書獃子學的」。

Shirley』s comments came as A-level results last week revealed a striking gender divide in computing, with only 9.8% of those taking the subject at A-level being girls.

雪莉的這番意見是在上周公布了A-level選課結果後發表的。A-level的選課結果顯示，計算機課程的性別差異非常明顯，在選擇計算機課程的所有學生中，女生只佔9.8％。

A-Level（General Certificate of Education Advanced Level ）：英國高中課程，是英國全民課程體系，是英國普通中等教育證書考試高級水平課程，也是英國學生的大學入學考試課程。其課程結構包括，基礎數學，進階數學，物理學，商科，經濟學和計算機科學。A-level課程包含70多門供學生選擇，一般學生選擇3至4門來學。

Shirley also called on tech companies, such as Google and Facebook, to introduce anonymous recruitment to help address the lack of female programmers. Only 20% of Google engineers are female (the statistic is roughly matched across the industry) and one recent report showed male founders are nearly twice as likely to attract venture capital funding.

雪莉還呼籲谷歌，臉書等科技公司實行匿名招聘，幫助解決女程序員缺乏的問題。谷歌的工程師中只有20%是女性（該數據與整個行業的情況大體吻合），且最近的報告顯示，男性創業者吸引創業投資基金的概率大概是女性創業者的兩倍。

「Once you have an imbalance, the leaders of today define the leaders of tomorrow,」 said Shirley. 「It』s instinctive to recruit in your own image. I think some of this will continue until we actually learn to anonymise some of our relationships and computers help in that.」

「一旦出現不平衡，今天的領導者就定義了未來的領導者，」雪莉如是說。「人們很容易自發地按照自己的形象來招聘。我認為，這種不平衡的現象還會繼續，直到我們真正開始學著匿名招聘，淡化性別與工作的關係才能停止，而計算機能幫得上忙。」

Programmers, she argued, should be assessed on skill, just as secretaries were once given typing tests. 「You don』t send a photo, you don』t give a name, you just look at the achievements of the person as a selection process,」 she said.

她還認為，招聘人員應該評估程序員的能力，就像應聘秘書時的打字測試一樣。「篩選時，不必看臉，也不必看姓名，只看應聘者的成績。」

She describes the recent internal memo by a former Google engineer as 「so patronising」 and 「utterly unacceptable」 and added that a failure to tackle the gender gap had led to 「very macho」 cultures in some tech companies, from which women felt excluded.

她認為，前谷歌工程師最近在谷歌內部備忘錄上的留言「自認為高人一等」且「完全不可容忍」，並補充道，無法解決性別差異導致一些科技公司的文化變得「非常大男子主義」，使得女性感覺自己被排斥。

Shirley contrasts this with the ethos at her first company, Freelance Programmers, which in the 1960s was among the first to sell technical software packages. Out of the first 300 staff, she employed just three male programmers and the gender ratio only shifted significantly when the Sex Discrimination Act passed in 1975.

雪莉把這種文化與她第一家公司，自由程序員（Freelance Programmers）的企業精神進行了比較。上世紀60年代，自由程序員是首批銷售套裝軟體的公司之一。初創時期的300名員工中，只有3名是男性。直到1975年《反性別歧視法》通過後，公司性別比例才出現大幅變動。

《反性別歧視法》:英國於1975年通過頒布的《反性別歧視法》是針對同酬法所未規範的非契約要項加以補充的措施,此法的宗旨在於保障男女兩性權利、待遇等各方面的平等,以及禁止對已婚者的歧視。

「You』d think I』d be as happy as anything because I』m a bit of a feminist, but that really meant that my woman』s company had to let the men in,」 she said.

她表示，「我比較推崇男女平等，所以你們會認為我一定很高興，但這其實意味著我的公司本是清一色娘子軍，現在得讓男人進來了」。

Shirley has previously spoken out about the sexism she faced in her early days working in computing and she later adopted the nickname Steve professionally because she found it easier to win contracts when people thought they were dealing with a man. 「Companies run by women still have extraordinary difficulty in getting venture capital,」 she said.

雪莉曾公開表示，早年在計算機行業工作時曾遭遇過性別歧視。之後她在工作中用了史蒂夫這個外號。因為她發現，人們以為自己在和一個男人打交道時會更願意和她簽合同。她還表示，「女性經營的公司在初創集資時還是會面臨非同尋常的困難」。

She also worries that lack of diversity in tech is leading to products that have bias programmed into them.

她還擔心，科技行業缺乏多樣化使得產品設計更偏向男性。

「An example of the industry』s masculinity is in my Apple watch,」 she said. 「This has lots of useful things such as heart rate but doesn』t help in managing the menstrual cycle.」

「科技行業就是男性的地盤，我的Apple Watch就是一個例子，」她表示，「這上面有很多有用的東西，比如心率監測，但卻不能監測經期」。

Since retiring, Shirley has devoted much of her time and fortune to philanthropic causes linked to autism – her late son Giles was severely autistic.

退休後，雪莉在自閉症慈善事業上花費了大量時間與金錢——她的小兒子加爾斯是嚴重自閉症患者。

She argues that technology such as robots and artificial intelligence holds huge potential for helping children with autism function in the world and connect more readily with those around them.This view runs counter to the fears of some that the increasing use of robots could leave some sectors of society, the elderly, for example, cut off from human contact.

雪莉認為，機器人與人工智慧這樣的技術在幫助自閉症兒童生活上有著巨大潛能，還能使他們更輕鬆地與身邊的人或事接觸。這種觀點與下面這種可謂大相徑庭：一些人擔心，越來越多機器人投入使用可能使得老年人等社會階層無法再與人類交流。

Such technology is already being tested at Priors Court in Berkshire, a residential school for autistic children that Shirley founded.

相關技術在伯克郡的Priors Court早已投入測試。Priors Court是雪莉專為自閉症兒童創建的寄宿學校。

「We use a little robot for very simple things,」 she said. 「To teach eye contact. To move quietly around and not to dash around in all directions. The reactions of pupils to the robot are extraordinary, partly because it』s not threatening,」 she added. 「The robot is patient and can repeat without getting, 『Oh God, is this child never going to get it.』」

她表示，「我們用機器人做一些很簡單的事情。讓機器人教孩子們眼神交流；安靜的走路，不要橫衝直撞。小學生們很喜歡這些機器人，原因之一是它們不具有威脅性，」她還表示，「機器人很有耐心，會無限次重複，而且不會覺得『天哪，這孩子是不是永遠也學不會啊』」。