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A 'Radical Manifesto' For Computer Teaching In English Schools

Posted by timothy on from the it-clicks-the-mouse-or-else-it-gets-the-hose-again dept.

00_NOP writes "Everybody (or almost everybody) in England agrees that computing teaching to kids in high school is broken. In response the government promised a radical overhaul and a new curriculum. But then last week it was discovered the government had scrapped the bit of the education department that would develop any such curriculum. Not to be deterred, John Naughton, the Cambridge University academic who wrote the Short History of the Future, has now published his own 'radical' manifesto on how computing should be taught."

2 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. here's my radical manifesto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Don't teach computing;

    2. Instead, improve teaching of the basic subjects: mathematics, English, science and at least one foreign language, to pre-Thatcher standards, i.e. before the national curriculum and privatisation of exam boards and replacement of O-levels with GCSEs destroyed secondary education;

    3. Well-prepared minds will be able to build on this foundation to do anything they want in their spare time or later years, including computing.

  2. Re:Why stop there? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why teach science? Surely you can only teach math and well-trained minds can pick up science on their spare time or later years?

    No. Science involves observation and experimentation skills which aren't present in mathematics. To science, mathematics is a tool - it does not have primacy, and we cannot assume that something mathematically simple is scientifically correct. Otherwise we'd still be modelling the universe like Plato.

    Everything from banking to communications to public transport relies on computers these days so it seems obvious to me that everyone should have at least basic understanding of computer science concepts / how computers work, instead of viewing them just as magic boxes. I honestly can't see why that shouldn't be taught in schools...

    Everything in the world is built on the laws of physics, but only a small proportion of things are built on computer systems - however skewed the view appears to the technologist. A "basic understanding" of computers, i.e. an understanding which takes them beyond thinking in terms of a black box and instead in terms of mathematical and physical concepts, requires a couple of afternoons of attention from a smart, well-prepared schoolkid.