These days, computer programming skills are reserved for computer science majors and the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world. The majority of personal computer users do not know how to program or even how to perform basic html coding for websites. This was not the case when personal computers were first becoming popular.
The more sophisticated children's computers sold in the 1980s and 1990s came with BASIC training built in. BASIC is a computer programming language, and it was part of the computer because, at this time, politicians, educators, technologists, etc. All believed that every citizen should learn computer programming. Otherwise, they would be left out of the computer revolution.
Today, due to sophisticated technology, we realize that you do not have to be able to program your own computer in order to tell it what to do. If you can program though, more power to you!