Okay, but CS is not programming.
After all, programming is not CS.
And by the way, I don't think anybody should first know anything before learning how to program. Programming is like breathing. Do you need to study anything before you breathe? No you don't!
So anybody who argues that you should learn all sorts of not useful things before having the privilege of trying useful things, is a strange person indeed to me.
One is a semi-automated bodily process necessary for extracting oxygen from the atmosphere, and the other is writing instructions in strictly defined languages to control the resources of computer systems.
Other than a contrived emotional connection you might make between the two, they aren't comparable.
You assume that you live in a physical world but you live in information world for real.
I think you do, and you will increasingly do so as time passes.
So, being able to control information flow becomes as important as controlling air flow. Yes, you don't die by being unable to do so for five minutes. You don't live that much either.
And by the way, I don't think anybody should first know anything before learning how to program. Programming is like breathing. Do you need to study anything before you breathe? No you don't!
So anybody who argues that you should learn all sorts of not useful things before having the privilege of trying useful things, is a strange person indeed to me.