Like most CS educators I'm a regular reader of Alfred Thompson's blog. Alfred's latest post is spot on but there was a line in it and a particular Twitter response that reminded me that we so often forget a big reason why people learn to code.

Alfred mentions, as did that Tweet about coding to solve problems. What problem are you trying to solve. This is the mainstream push - programming helps you solve problems. I've noticed a doubling down on this with all the efforts (including mine) to integrate CS into other subjects. While where and how much CS should be integrated vs standalone is a topic for another day, integrating CS into other fields is very much a "help solve the problems of that field" approach.

Nothing wrong with all of this. It's all good stuff but there's another side to the coin. It's a side that I sometimes forget about from in the trenches. In fact, a few years ago I was rambling on and on about programming as problem solving and my friend and fellow CS teacher Peter Brooks reminded me - the question doesn't have to be "what problem do you want to solve?" The question can be "what do you want to create?"

Sometimes we forget that programming can be an amazingly creative endeavor. You can use it to make something brand new and there doesn't necessarily have to be a problem to be solved.

Fred Brooks puts it nicely at the start of his classic work "The Mythical Man Month:"

The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures….

– Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man Month

I also saw elsewhere, maybe by Fred Brooks, maybe someone else talking of a programmer being like a painter but whereas a painter has oils, brushes, and pigments to create on a canvas, the programmer has programming languages to create on the computer.

Maybe it's the push for "practical" education, maybe the integration, maybe the focus on testing. I have no idea but it seems that we frequently forget about the creative side of the equation.

I mean, yes, the APCS-P specification does mention creativity in the interestingly enough named "Create Task:"

Programming is a collaborative and creative process that brings ideas to life through the development of software. In the Create performance task, you will design and implement a program that might solve a problem, enable innovation, explore personal interests, or express creativity.

but it's after "solve a problem" and "enable innovation."

That creative side though shouldn't be forgotten. Some of my students most memorable projects didn't solve a problem. I remember the "Cheerleader Simulator" in NetLogo. No problem solved there but it was a fun project. Another was Tamika's stupid mouse dexterity game. A simple game of her own design. I say stupid not becuase it was really stupid - it was great. Rather, I say stupid becuase that game caused me to waste so much time that end of year when I should have been grading!!!!!!!!!

As we seek to engage a wider audience in CS we shouldn't merely focus on the problem solving nor the making money. The creative side is really important as well.