I agree with your article. There is a difference between being able to write code and being able to design and develop software. And learning a specific language will not help a layman when looking at another language. What makes sense, is to teach people logic and some standard algorithms and patterns. It would be great if the non-professional understood how programming works. When I was in college I took a course in computer logic. It was language agnostic and it involved creating algorithms to solve specific problems.