Hello Reader!

Computer programming is the new liberal art

Programming gives young people agency over an increasingly complex and technologically sophisticated world. Seymour Papert asked more than 50 years ago, “Does the computer program the child or the child program the computer?” Answering that question in favor of the child is critical now more than ever. Developing, possessing, and wielding such computational fluency is essential for participating in democracy and thriving in an uncertain future.

Don’t like “coding?” Why not think of it in the way the use of computers was discussed at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, a half-century ago at the dawn of the Logo programming language and thinking about computers in education? Those pioneering women and men not only believed that “computers are for children,” but they viewed the richest activity to be "computational making."

Read on for more resources to go beyond Hour of Code!

How to teach with computers

Few educators have more experience teaching children to program computers or inspiring teachers to teach children computational making than Gary Stager. He began doing so professionally in 1982, has led hundreds of workshops, hosted Constructing Modern Knowledge, written books on the subject, and even led hands-on workshops for several hundred kids at the same time. Gary recently led a new workshop, Clever Computing for Children, for PK-2 teachers interested in teaching computer science to very young children. If you are interested in inspiring your teachers, kickstarting your students, or offering a hands-on computation workshop for families in your community, reach out. We can help!

Books to supercharge computational making

​Constructing Modern Knowledge Press has the books you need for classroom and makerspace!

Spend 5 days in Reggio Emilia

Early-bird discount registration is now in place for our life-changing learning adventure in Reggio Emilia, June 15-19, 2026. Join colleagues from around the world in “the city of children” and explore the language of computation within the context of the Reggio Emilia Approach. Learn more about why this is a "must attend" event for educators interested in teaching computer programming in a progressive setting.​

Free resources to go beyond Hour of Code

Here are collections of materials to inspire computational making experiences and computational fluency development in your classroom.

• Learn with Logo. Downloadable classic books, articles, scholarship, and activities related to learning with Logo, the first programming language for children.
• What language is best for teaching kids to code? Why choose just one? A curated menu of creative programming environments for learning.
• Turtle Art. Turtle Art is an elegant version of Logo that can be used to create beautiful geometric images. Simple, yet deep. Find a plethora of Turtle Art classroom materials here.
• Got micro:bits? You need the The Invent To Learn Guide to the micro:bit from CMK Press, with dozens of projects for coding, making, and learning.
• Lynx. Web-based Logo for the next generation. Plus David Thornburg's book, Learning to Code – An Invitation to Computer Science Through the Art and Patterns of Nature. Also available in a Snap! version.
• How to teach computational thinking. Stephen Wolfram, the greatest computer scientist of our age says, "I’ve noticed an interesting trend. Pick any field X, from archeology to zoology. There either is now a “computational X” or there soon will be. And it’s widely viewed as the future of the field. So how do we prepare the kids of today for this future?" Read the rest of this essay packed with examples.
• Try the new AI-enabled Wolfram Language Notebook Assistant. This is a remarkable course for students usingadvanced AI tutoring and assessment to guide them through real-world computationally rich explorations (education discounts available). Trial version of the software.

That's all for now! Hope you are having a fantastic holiday season!

Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez
Constructing Modern Knowledge