Coding: just a useful skill or a necessity?

Alyssa Ehrhardt
Sun, 17 Jan 2021 19:44:34 +0000
Uncategorized

Should humanities students learn to code? I think yes. But I want to make clear that by saying yes, I am not arguing that they must learn to code, nor am I saying that coding is a necessary skill in order to have a successful career in the humanities. Rather, I believe that one’s humanities education can simply be enhanced by learning how to cross the bridge between natural and artificial languages.

My opinions on this question are largely based on personal experience. Up until the spring of 2020, I had no coding experience, and frankly, I did not see a reason why I should. Most of my academic interests lie in the biological sciences, so sitting in front of a blank screen endlessly inputing very specific strings of letters seemed quite dull to me, compared to drawing colorful anatomical diagrams or giving alcohol to fruit flies in lab.

However, spring term of 2020, I took an introduction to statistics course where I had my first encounter with coding in R studio. R is a coding language made specifically for statistics, for example:


MnGroundwater <- read.csv("MnGroundwater.csv")
ggplot(MnGroundwater, aes(x=Lead))
        +geom_histogram(bins=20, color = "white")


With the appropriate data, this R command produces a histogram like this.

Example Histogram Produced by R

While I admit that my patience was tested on multiple counts, I came out of the class with a new sense of appreciation for pretty much anything computer-related. I started to notice things that I never would have thought twice about before–for example, websites with complex layouts or when Excel would do instantaneous calculations for me.

Computers should not be black boxes but rather understood as engines for creating powerful and persuasive models of the world around us.
Matthew Kirschenbaum, “Hello Worlds (why humanities students should learn to program),” May 23, 2010

Although I have only skimmed the surface of the world of coding, I can already see how being familiar with coding would enhance my education in the biological sciences by being able to analyze quantitative information better using R or present my research neatly using CSS.

Likewise, I think that familiarity with coding will only do good for a person in the humanities, especially in this day of age where the divide between artificial language and natural language seem to be diminishing. Thus, for humanities students, I think coding should be viewed more as a useful skill, rather than as a necessary prerequisite, that could open doors to opportunities that are only available in the digital world.