{"id":15760,"date":"2017-07-09T13:53:36","date_gmt":"2017-07-09T17:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=15760"},"modified":"2017-07-09T13:53:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-09T17:53:36","slug":"teaching-young-americans-to-be-code-monkeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/09\/teaching-young-americans-to-be-code-monkeys\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching young Americans to be code monkeys"},"content":{"rendered":"

“How Silicon Valley Pushed Coding Into American Classrooms”<\/a> (New York Times) is worth a look mostly for the disconnect between reader comments and the enthusiastic journalist.<\/p>\n

How do humanities majors see computing?<\/p>\n

Computer science<\/strong> is also essential to American tech companies, which have become heavily reliant on foreign engineers.\u00a0Mr. Trump\u2019s efforts to limit immigration make Code.org\u2019s teach-Americans-to-code agenda<\/strong> even more attractive to the industry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

i.e., a person who can write a basic program in an imperative language (BASIC?) is learning “computer science.”<\/p>\n

Which of these does Rachel Dolezal join?<\/p>\n

Along with groups like Black Girls Code, Girls Who Code and Latina Girls Code, Code.org<\/strong> has worked to make the subject accessible to a diverse group of students.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Does a student with fluid gender have to bounce between the Girls Who Code classroom and the Code.org classroom?<\/p>\n

Mr. Partovi noted that Code.org had opposed a \u201cmore extreme\u201d coding bill in Florida that would have required students to obtain industry certification.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nothing’s scarier to educators than a test that students might actually fail!<\/p>\n

As with most NYT articles, the comments are the most interesting part, offering us a window into what Americans (or at least Americans who voted for Hillary) think.<\/p>\n

As an ex-college professor I would like to point out that many students do not know when the first and second world wars occurred. That about four-fifths of Americans cannot find Iraq on the map (despite the fact that it has been in continuously in the news for over a decade). That about half of Americans believe evolution is not true. That about 40% of college undergrads need remedial classes in math and English coming into college. That a large number cannot even write a coherent essay.<\/p>\n

Perhaps these can be solved first. They are of greater much importance than providing a specific industry with workers it “needs” (ironic considering that high tech industry throws out employees over the age of 40 [or less], when they become obsolete<\/strong>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This professor does raise a good point. If programmers are in such short supply, why can’t old programmers get jobs?<\/p>\n

To all this talk of teaching computer programming in schools to fill tech jobs, why won’t the tech companies create their own apprentice programs? Why won’t tech companies use some of their millions\/billions and open up learning centers in communities where they don’t have business centers if they are truly altruistic, and not self-serving<\/strong>? Logical thinking can be developed through any scholarly pursuit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe the Trumpenfuhrer should call the bluffs of the Silicon Valley Hillary-supporters! He can offer to let them bring back, tax-free, some of the overseas $billions (that they were sheltering from Obama’s tax rates) as long as they spend it to train Americans for the jobs currently done by H-1B visa holders. It would be awesome to see the reaction!<\/p>\n

[Todd Goglia] Most jobs are for “mediocre coders”. Only a tiny percentage of programming jobs entail a real understanding of advanced computer science concepts such as machine learning. Most jobs consist of getting data from a database and outputting it to a web page or getting user input from a webpage and saving it to a database<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe he read Philip and Alex’s Guide to Web Publishing<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(or its predecessor, Database backed Web Sites<\/em><\/a>) back in the 1990s!<\/p>\n

Readers: What do you think? People have been trying since the 1970s to make programming part of K-12. Is this code.org thing going to be the initiative that succeeds?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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