Most 10-year-olds can't become ace web programmers (well, given an infinite time horizon, maybe they can, but then they aren't 10-year-olds anymore.)

For, largely completely different reasons, most liberal arts graduates probably can't either.

Of course, some can (I think I'm a pretty decent programmer, and my degree is a BA in Political Science. Then again, I was a programming long before I got that degree -- I might have even been a 10-year-old web programmer, if not necessarily an ace one, if the web existed when I was 10.)

I have a BA in English, but I've been programming since I was 7, starting with BASIC, then on my TI-82 in junior high, C in high school, Perl, PHP and Javascript in college. I work full time as a software engineer now, and I make a good living doing it.

After all, what's easy for you is easy for everyone right?

"Last March, he enrolled in App Academy, a 12-week web development program with locations in San Francisco and New York, and found a job coding within three weeks of interviewing. In his new position as a web application engineer at Yola, a San Francisco-based website building company, Morrison says he earns considerably more than what he had made doing administrative work."

Same thing was happening before the crash of 2000, people would take a month long course and then get jobs based on that course. I ask everyone what is driving up the valuations, and to look critically into the future. As soon as the companies that have the large valuations (Twitter,Facebook,etc.) start to post negative growth you will see an exodus.

Abilities and performance varied significantly, but the program let you make rapid progress if you were of a mind to.

If I may ask (in part because I consider returning to that area of Vermont), how did you find the Computer Sciences program?

> College or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum. ... In modern colleges and universities, the liberal arts include the study of literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, and science.

Computer science (as distinct from "programming" or "software engineering") is a liberal art! As are pure mathematics, and natural sciences like physics, chemistry, or biology.

To the article's point though, coding has become a much more important vocational skill than it was. I really do think there should be a fourth skill set in primary school education reading, writing, mathematics, and computer programming.

Arguably, but a BS in Computer Science isn't a Liberal Arts degree, its a science degree that is named that to distinguish it from a Liberal Arts degree (BA, the "Arts" refers to Liberal Arts.)

Of course, if you have a BA in Computer Science, that is a Liberal Arts degree.

For example, MIT only awards BS degrees to undergrads, so you could major in French Studies or history and get a BS: http://mitadmissions.org/discover/majors

In contrast, a school like Amherst only awards BA degrees, so you'd wind up with a BA in physics, chem or computer science: https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments

However, in my experience, it will still be a distinction without a difference, since very few employers would understand or care about it.

This presumes that the only meaningful effect of a college education is a vocational certification that is presented to employers.

If we presume the BA student has taken a few more electives in outside areas, and the BS student has taken a few more major-focus classes and perhaps more quantitative classes, it's hard for me to see that choice having a serious impact on a student's intellectual development.

At most, it's a signal about the type of person that student was when they choose their degree.

What if we assume that the primary goal of a liberal arts undergraduate degree (BA) is that, and the primary goal of other types of undergraduate degrees (BS, BFA, BSL, etc.) differs for each?

When I last saw a catalog from a school that offered both degrees in the same field, the BS generally required more units in the major field of study and closely related fields and substantially less required "breadth" classes in fields outside of the same major.

Many BA programs I've seen in non-science fields require at least one laboratory science course in their breadth requirements (calculus probably isn't a requirement.)

Definitely not the same, but getting started at 10 and being proficient at 14 isn't unheard of.

Also, start with Python. I know some of you think it's neat to jump right in with JavaScript and make cool animations and dynamic web pages, but -- I'm from the future. You should start with Python.

Brain plasticity. Next.

And now that I am older (mid-20s) and my brain is supposedly less plastic, but I have motivation, context and determination in abundance, I feel like I am really learning and developing for the first time in my life.

The important difference is that all of this acquisition is a result of tens of thousands of years of consistent natural selection. It's hard-wired because humans have needed these things, and children have needed them as fast as possible, for a long long time.

The things humans attempt to learn in modern times however (non-native languages, formal systems of logic, the ability to argue and reason in complex fashions, the ability to program complex systems) are completely evolutionarily unprecedented, and the result is clear: children are not able to acquire these behaviours effortlessly. They don't just rub off. Instead they (generally) require focussed, extensive supervision and tuition from humans that have already put in the hard work of mastering them.

So the relevance of neuroplasticity still seems small to me.

At least in the case of non-native languages, while it may not be "effortless", every study I've seen has indicated that it is much easier for children to learn them.

So I've brushed up on my CS via online courses and enjoy a more educated/enlightened apathy toward modern politics.

I wouldn't really agree with that, but whatever you need to justify your student debts.

Oh, wait. You don't have an English degree, do you?

I currently do sysops professionally.

Surely the reference is to the saying "Have Gun, Will Travel" (to which "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" was also a reference) which was popularly used to mean "I am prepared for anything", which is exactly the theoretical point behind a liberal arts degree (though not specifically a degree with a major in the humanities, though the latter are generally also the former, and the article seems to use them interchangeably; "liberal arts" is orthogonal to the major field of study.)

http://www.word-detective.com/2013/07/have-gun-will-travel/

Edit: From the sounds of things, it's going to be very interesting:

Dan Melton, deputy chief technology officer at Granicus, a San Francisco-based startup that puts government data in the cloud, has hired two students with humanities backgrounds from App Academy. He said he looks for those students because they’re able to work better with other programmers and clients and understand the larger meaning of the work.

"We already have a lot of software whiz kids," Melton said. "We like to hire people who are interested in public affairs and civic engagement."

Sounds like it's going to be quite the culture change.