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NYC To Open 1st High School Dedicated To Software

Posted by timothy on from the ferris-bueller-memorial dept.

stephencrane writes "NYC is to open The Academy for Software Engineering, with a focus on software design and college preparation. It'll be a 'limited, unscreened' high school, which means admission won't be tied to grades or test scores; solely on interest (and presumably a lottery, once words gets out)." Would you want to go (or have gone) to such a school? Would you want your kids to attend?

8 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. How about a High School dedicated to learning? by Kenja · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This sounds like a trade school. High School should be about learning how to think and process information. Once you've learned how to learn you can go on to learning a trade. Its bad enough so many schools are now about being able to pass tests.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:How about a High School dedicated to learning? by SJHillman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My high school was dedicated to passing standardized tests. Learning was just an undesirable side effect that happened to anyone who happened to have a passing interest in the subject at hand.

    2. Re:How about a High School dedicated to learning? by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's ridiculous. Not every person can follow some ancient Greek ideal of higher thought.

      There were plenty of doofuses that spent high school throwing a pencil at the kid in front of them. Trade school is good for them.

      And back on topic, just because someone is good with computers does not make them automatically wired to go through the traditional liberal arts education routine. Some kids will thrive in a targeted environment like this.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    3. Re:How about a High School dedicated to learning? by xero314 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If you were going to make me pick a trade in high school, it probably would have been Software Engineering. Instead, in college I went from business to marketing to accounting, and then went into a career in Software Engineering. I wasted so much by going to a liberal arts college, and it amazes me that anyone would want to limit their kids ability to get detailed learning in a subject that interests them. Had I been exposed to Software Engineering earlier I would have realised my real interest were in hardware and IC design. Don't make more general schools, increase the options of specialisations.

      I wasted half my life in the American education system. The education received in the United States is far to slow for a large number of people. Many of us were ready to specialise by our teen years. I had to be accepted into college before I graduated high school because I was unable to receive the necessary education, and I was not in away alone. The kind of general stuff you are talking about should be done in elementary school. There is no reason we shouldn't be able to have a system with specialised high schools for those that are ready for it.

  2. Surprisingly probably not by Anrego · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think I would have jumped at the opportunity when I was in school.

    However, looking back, I don’t think it would have been a great idea. I’ve said it many times, but if left to my own devices, I would have spent most of my free time glued to a computer. As it stood I had a few non-computer geek friends who would figuratively drag me out of my basement every once in a while and looking back, I had a lot of fun.

    Maybe I would be a slightly better programmer .. but I think I would have missed out on a lot of important experiences, and more practically, development of social skills (which I’ve found are becoming more important as I’ve progressed through my career).

    In other words, diversity in peers is a good thing. Not having to “deal with” people who are outside of your interests and being surrounded by like minded individuals may sound great, but that kind of narrow focus so early on just sounds like a bad idea.

    1. Re:Surprisingly probably not by f0rdpr3fect42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      So I went to a similar school to this back when I was in high school, but the focus was general engineering vs. a specific focus like programming. I don't feel like I missed out on any social development or (as some might fear) academic variety as a result. The school, much like this one, had to meet state curriculum requirements, so the specialization was more like one class a year and then slightly more focused electives later on.

      Socially, we still had a good mix of people. Sure, it wasn't as rich or diverse a group of personalities as I would've encountered my normal high school, but I'd petition that this actually helped me develop my personality far more than the standard experience would have. I think being around so many like minded people let me comfortably act like myself for the first time in my academic career. I was less afraid of ridicule for personality quirks that, in hindsight, really weren't that big a deal to begin with. I didn't exactly cut myself off from the rest of the world, either. I still interacted with folks from my middle school days outside of school time and stayed involved in my home high school's extracurricular music program to help maintain those ties.

      Meanwhile, during all of this, I developed a simple set of skills that helped me adapt to college more quickly than many of my peers and, I feel, left me more prepared for what was expected of me. I have mild concerns that this school could be too focused too early, but I don't think that the diversity will be as big an issue as you believe.

  3. First school where abstinence education will work. by trout007 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just sayin.

    --
    I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
  4. Note that "Joel" is involved with this. by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The "Joel on Software" guy is involved with this, so he's plugging an activity of his own.

    There's no programmer shortage. Businesses want "just in time" employees with exactly the skill set they need this week. Then they whine when they have to pay market rate for them. They're not willing to retrain their own people, or hire competent people with related skill sets and send them to training classes. Anyone who's competent in at least two programming languages can learn a third in a few months.

    (Actually, the headache today is learning APIs. Everything seems to come with an API with hundreds to thousands of functions, some of which work, some of which sort of work, and some of which don't work at all. The documentation usually consists of examples rather than a reference manual. Worst case, it's a wiki.)