NEW YORK - Apple CEO Tim Cook says teaching coding to kids is just as important as teaching any other foreign language. And the younger kids start learning it, the better.

Cook spoke to a group of New York third graders who visited a Manhattan Apple store for a coding class Wednesday. He says schools don't put enough emphasis on computer science education and that he hopes that one day coding will become a required class for all kids.

The kids at the event played with a Star Wars-themed iPad game, using basic drag-and-drop commands to program their droid to do things like pick up scrap metal or evade Stormtroopers. 

The "Hour of Code" workshop was one of many held by Apple Inc. this week as part of Computer Science Education Week.