Why we don't teach coding first.

Most schools that take innovation seriously start with the tool. We start with the question.

The reason is simple. A 14-year-old who learns to code before they learn to see is dangerous in a particular way: they will build whatever the algorithm hands them, then declare it an accomplishment. We are not interested in producing that person.

What we want, instead, is a student who can sit with a broken system long enough to understand it. The tools — coding, 3D modeling, fabrication, finance — come second. They follow appetite, not the other way around.

This is older than it sounds. Apprenticeship has worked this way for seven hundred years. The Center is just betting that it still works.