I taught my son Ben, who is 8, to count in binary last night.
It was fun. He struggles with math, but this seemed like a revelation for him. So simple, so powerful.
I realised he didn’t know what is inside a microchip – that a computer is just a box of switches. That when a sprite moves across the screen there are essentially just lots of little lights being switched on and off quickly. That 1s and 0s, ons and offs – two simple states – power our world, helped send men to the moon.
I sensed a Eureka moment for him. Almost wonder if in fact we’re teaching kids the wrong way around. Binary is so fundamental, so important, fun and easy. Teach kids to add and multiply in binary and I’m sure it will better prepare them for doing the same in decimal. If nothing else the fact that this has something to do with computers is probably a little incentive in getting them to pay attention.
I didn’t learn binary until half way through secondary school. I have no idea if/when schools teach it now.
Kids use tablets, smartphones, video games and computers all the time. Do they know what’s inside?
