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IBM High School To Churn Out IT Pros

Posted by samzenpus on from the these-grades-brought-to-you-by-Pepsi dept.

theodp writes "This week, NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the City University of New York and IBM are creating a computer science-focused school in the city that will span grades 9-14 (students leave with an associate's degree). Graduates who pass muster will reportedly be first in line for jobs at IBM. 'The idea is to create a new [educational] model for science, technology, engineering, and math — areas where companies are aggressively hiring,' explained IBM's Stanley Litow. 'If you look at hiring requirements, you won't see a huge amount of difference in a lot of entry-level IT jobs.' No word yet on the school colors or whether a uniform will be required. IBM is giving the city $250,000 to create the school, which might have looked pretty generous if that Zuckerberg kid hadn't upped the ante with his $100,000,000 donation."

5 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Corporations teaching kids... by drsquare · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What could possibly go wrong? I imagine this will end up as successful as Bill Gates' ventures into education.

    Maybe these tech barons should stick to computers and stop trying to play god with children's futures.

    1. Re:Corporations teaching kids... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Maybe these tech barons should stick to computers and stop trying to play god with children's futures.

      I would, under normal circumstances, agree. The education of children must not be left to private citizens (except their own children), and definitely not private corporations (IBM/Microsoft/Google/Apple/Red Hat/Canonical) - If they want to pay money and help, sure. But they should not even be allowed to put a sticker on their donations, or control/moderate what kids learn.

      However, given the hidden agendas and downright stupidity of those actually entrusted with the responsibility of helping our children, I feel that the companies really can't do much worse than what is going on right now. Sure, they might be trained on Windows or IBM technology, but as long as they give them a balanced education (esp. maths and science - don't just teach them how to click Start->Accessories...), the students will have the basic tools they need to make careers in STEM. Even if the kids wind up working for the very companies that sponsored their education. Many people actually choose to work for those companies anyway - people with college and graduate degrees in STEM. Its better than the current high-school graduates who all dream of becoming glamorous business(men/women) or models or trendy-career-of-the-day, while working as typists/powerpoint dummies because 'Maths/Science/Engineering is just too hard and I'll never become a millionaire like that baseball star' or 'Geeks aren't cool'. /rant

  2. excellent by jcombel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    i'm always willing to support an attempt at alternative forms of education. i honestly wish i had a similar opportunity as a high-schooler.
     
    the only concern i'd have (and which has probably already been addressed) is to make sure the students get a diploma or GED at the end of the twelfth year. not seeing any indicator on that in tfa.

  3. Getting it Both Ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Perhaps IBM is looking to hire help that has the same skillset, yet lacks the education. Following the mantra of "you don't have a college education, so we will pay you less...never mind we engineered your education to be college-free". Why go over to India if we can develop a reduced-skillset-less-pay workforce at home?

  4. Re:The Cynical Reply by ananthap · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In their race to get bonded labour, IBM will ensure that the dumbing down of educational standards is intitutionalised. The same thing is happening in my country (India). In order to get engineers and science graduates ready for the market or "customer facing" as these companies (and their Indian subsidaries) call it, these companies pay money to the schools to teach their subjects only. Thus they turn out hacks and not computer science graduates who understand general principles and theories. Remember that earlier the same thing happened with the advent of Java.