Slashdot Mirror
Chelsea Clinton At NCWIT: More PE, Less Zuckerberg
theodp (442580) writes "Among the speakers at last week's National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Summit was Chelsea Clinton, who spoke fondly of the Commodore she received as a kid on Christmas Day in 1987. During the Q&A, Clinton was asked (Vimeo), 'What do you see as some of the right policies that could help put Computer Science — which is undeniably the most important 21st Century skill — into our classrooms?' To which the former First Daughter responded, 'I won't quibble with the fact that I think it's very important. I also think other things admittedly are important.' Such as? Aligning Computer Science with Common Core, for one thing ('Ensure that Computer Science is part of the definition of science'). Using state budget surpluses to hire additional physical education teachers for elementary and middle school students, for another ('For Computer Science, as any subject, kids that are well-fed with healthy food and who have been activated in their bodies will able to learn and retain information in any subject better than if they're not'). And, last but not least, 'continuing to tell stories of people that are not...people who don't look like Mark Zuckerberg as successful in Computer Science and technology.' NCWIT, by the way, was listed as a "major partner" on last December's Hour of Code, which arguably made Mark Zuckerberg the face of Computer Science for K-12 students in the nationwide campaign embraced by President Obama during CSEdWeek."
Why do we care what she thinks?
Why, Chelsea herself demonstrates that there are options for people who don't look like Mark Zuckerberg. All you need to do is be born into the right family and you too can be Vice Chair of a foundation you basically can't be fired from.
She's just a political Kardashian, why do people pay any attention to her?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
'What do you see as some of the right policies that could help put Computer Science — which is undeniably the most important 21st Century skill — into our classrooms?'
"Undeniably", technology buffoon? Scavenging for food and repairing shelters and small machines are much more likely to be the most needed skill in the not too distant future.
maybe in K-12 but at collgle if they want to to take PE it better be free not at the a price that is way over the cost of a 2 year plan at a good GYM just for the price of one class before fees..
Here's a hint: The most important 21st century skill is going to be heathcare. You're not going to have your job outsourced to India or worry about the company you work for going under because no one notices their crappy mobile application amongst the thousands of others in the market. The IT industry is brutal.
Sure, provide opportunities for kids who have the aptitude, drive and desire to go into IT, but don't cram it down the throats of those who have no interest in it. There's already enough people trained in IT that open source projects have no problem being maintained by people who are willing to work for free. It's a bit irresponsible to steer kids toward a field that is already over saturated with workers.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Computer science is not a skill. Even if it were, however, I'd regard its status as undeniably the most important 21st Century skill to in fact be fairly deniable.
As best I can tell, the closest things to 'IT unions' are employer cartels (like the one that settled as fast as possible relatively recently, lest the discovery get really interesting). Despite any empirical evidence to the contrary, the employees have substantially bought the line that they are just too special and above average to be dragged down by obstructionist union thugs who worship only seniority.
or will be. She's a member of the American Ruling Class. The working class is hoping she's turn on her own and help us out....
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
if you ignore the Math then "Computer Science" is writing if-elses and for loops. As near as I can tell this is just a bunch of rich people tired of paying programmers 6 figures. Points to Ms Clinton for asking that money be put to fundamental development and the general betterment. The cynic in me wonders if she means it (who watch half his career go overseas and the other half eroded by cheap 'n easy work visas) hopes she means it...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Points to Ms Clinton for asking that money be put to fundamental development and the general betterment.
How sad that more people do not realize computers have brought "General Betterment" to more people than most inventions in history.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Because she's pregnant. :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
But Common Core is shit, and it's robbing children, notably poor minority children, of their education.
What works? Letting teachers teach and putting the administrators on a tight leash.
What doesn't work? Micromanaging all teachers, telling them how to do their job, and letting administrators run the show.
Let's stick with what works. We don't need iPads in every classroom, we don't need to teach every kid C++, and we don't need bizarre curriculum revamps or biased and unproven testing methods like Smarter Balance.
Most people who need to use computers don't need to know how they work inside or how to program them. There is no "undeniable" need to boost CS anymore than there is a need to teach the masses about the details of running a farm.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Here's a link to where she talks about the Commodore 64, check at 1:45. She also mentioned that she liked Carmen Sandiego.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Computers mean efficient communications and stored knowledge. ALL of the things you mention have been made better through information stored and shared via computers.
Computer Science is thing thing that amplifies everything else, making it more accessible to everyone and not just first world countries.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Zuckerberg built a mediocre site that was in the right place at the right time to make a quick buck off of it, and the modern iteration is not maintained by him. The only reason we're hearing from him is because of how much money he makes. The only reason we hear from chelsea clinton at all is because she's a clinton, and she's just repeating her mother's party line, nothing new.
Neither are 'computer scientists' nor are they informed enough to speak for education or technology in general. One speaks from arrogance and self interest and the other from ideological assumptions. At best, zuckerberg is the better of the two, but only because he's actually written a few lines of code.
she was 7 in '87, she would of been playing with dolls and kindergarten
You do know Chelsea holds two masters degrees and a newly minted doctorate from Oxford?
She attended Forest Park Elementary School, Booker Arts and Science Magnet Elementary School and Horace Mann Junior High School, which are public schools in Little Rock. She skipped the third grade.
At age four, Clinton had begun taking dance classes in Arkansas, and she continued her dance training at the Washington School of Ballet for several years.
Chelsea Clinton
So why is Chelsea Clinton's opinion any more important than the flavor-of-the-month reality TV star(let)?
I'm not sure whether most states are allowed to sit on money to be used at some unknown point in the future (a "rainy day fund").
Dude, she ain't pregnant with an elephant...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
...the reason the Mill CPU hasn't gotten VC funding.
Seastead this.
Are you sure? She might have mated with one. :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Gee, thanks for that mental picture. I'll name my next nightmare after you.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Haha, no problems. ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Skip the focus on fucking Comp. Sci.
America has, overall, great schools in the k-6 realm. I have seen kids come from Germany, Austria, China, Sweden, Britain, Thailand, Japan, etc, and over and over, most of the K-6 are BEHIND American student. It appears that around 6-8, we are similar. It is in high school where we appear to fall behind, but not really. In all of the other nations, they spit the kids out in our high school arena. Most of them will not go to college so start working on learning simple skills such as shop, construction, home-ec, cooking, etc. America USED to be like that. We need to return to that. In those levels, teach things like how to use a 3D printer. Likewise, how to use other tools. etc.
But, Comp Sci at grade school is a waste. Far better to get kids through algebra by say 8-9th grade.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Same age as her and that was the year we got an apple IIe from a fire sale (literal, some kids tried to end school forever), cleaned it up, and upgraded from the C-64.
I'd have to agree with that 95% part. Given the opportunity any kids can learn the basics of a command line interface once they start to learn to read, and earlier with a GUI. My 6 year old loves playing on computers.
Heck my 18 month has figured out how to unlock my phone and loves seeing the screen change when she pushes buttons. That's a fascination that will bloom into true geekdom as she grows.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
Actually, nearly all can. However, when you have a 5 year slump and you go through one of hardest recessions/depression, you burn it all up in the first year or two.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
No, history was her bachelor.
Her masters degree was in international relations.
Her second masters degree in public health.
Obviously the main reason she's asked for these kind of things is because of her parents, but she's no dummy herself.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
But interestingly enough... no matter how much smoke you blow, you failed to answer the question.
Meh. History is international relations that happened back then, whereas international relations is history that's happening right now.
--
Henry Ford, I think. Or maybe Gerald.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
... Computer Science â" which is undeniably the most important 21st Century skill...
I sort of stumbled over this one - it stands out as blatant nonsense, IMO, at least when picked out of its context. There is no doubt that information processing is important, but all the important, fundamental research has been done, really, and we are just polishing up and filling gaps now. I would say that most of what computer science has brought us, now belongs to the basic skill set along with things like literacy, numeracy and the ability to eat and drink through the right orifices. All very important, but there are unsolved problems that are far more important now, in my view. I'll just mention three, that I can think of:
- Us and the environment: not just climate change and the sadness of losing cute animal species. Once, only about 30 or 40 years ago, it was generally believed that we could survive even if we wiped out all other species than humans and the few we directly exploit; we now know that everything is intimately connected, and that even what might seem like a minor extinction may have the potential to topple the whole load. In my estimation, understanding this well enough should be a top priority - our survival as an advanced civilisation might depend on it. On the plus side, it isn't actually all that difficult to sort out.
- Theoretical physics: We are now standing in a similar place as about 100 years ago, when everybody was trying to get to grips with the strange observations that lead to General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. We know that our current understanding is incomplete, because we can't explain all our observations, but haven't yet had that moment of brilliant insight that makes everything obvious (for a certain value of "obvious" - GR and QM aren't all that simple). We are probably on the verge of it - and who knows what may be waiting just around the corner? FTL travel? Unlimited, clean energy?
- Biology: We are gaining huge, new insights almost every day into aspects of life and medicine, that I could hardly dream of when I was young. We almost know what life itself is. We are close to beating cancer. We may be able to overcome death itself. We have technology that can see what goes on inside the brain as we think. We are beginning to understand mental illness. The potential benefits are obvious.
There are also obvious dangers in knowing so much - but we have taken the step already, simply by taking an interest and asking the questions. Knowledge is power, and we are always going to have to learn how to use our powers responsibly. That, perhaps, is always going to be the most important challenge.
I got a second-hand Mac Plus when I was that age, and I'd already tried to learn BASIC on a friend's Apple II.
Maybe? I don't know why else she may have been invited to speak there. Except that someone thinks she may run for elected office someday?
The USA is only 4X older than me...perspective
It should be more RMS, less Zuckerberg.
Fixed that for ya Chelsea.
Why do we care what she thinks?
Because she is a visible public-speaking figure with the power to lobby for or against things. For better or worse what matters in this world is not what you know but your power to influence policy making. This is not to say knowing and ability to influence are mutually exclusive, nor I'm saying whether Chelsea Clinton is qualified to say what is needed or not in STEM education.
I'm simply saying that if *you* (the generic you) do not care what a public speaker with the potential power of influence (directly or by political/family ties) says simply because some perceived or real lack of technical acumen, *you* are an idiot.
It is like saying "why should we care what a Creationist politician thinks?" and then wondering why state legislation bodies keep passing idiotic laws regarding STEM education in public schools.
Stupid, right?
Against, this is not say whether Chelsea Clinton is onto something or is completely unqualified to speak about the subject, but more about an indictment in ./'s collective technotard arrogance and cluelessness on how the world operates. That your post actually gets modded as insightful is a pathetic example of that sad state of affairs among people who consider themselves techno-illuminated.
My first computer class was at a county 'adult education' campus. It was in 1978 or '79, and I was 7 or 8 years old. My next one was in the fourth grade with Apple ][e computers.
And that was out in farm area. I'm sure people with more metropolitan lineage had access to more than that at that age.
And by 1987, many people had Commodore or Tandy computers, even Atari made one.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
Are you dumb or what? I was five ('89) when my dad gave me my first computer (MSX, a very popular z80 based platform here in Brazil, and also on Europe and Japan). I still remember how to use it, and that's what got me started...so yeah, people van remember stuff from a young age.
History is extremely relevant. If you don't chronicle your past, and learn from it, you're doomed to repeat it. You can learn a lot from how people used to do things.
whoa, skipped third grade? awesome.
After reading this comment, I'm sure I will be just as unimpressed with any pieces of paper that verify your intelligence.
Was this a racist statement because he is white, he shouldn't be looked at as a 'face' of computer science success?
Of course my statement here is a bit tongue in cheek, but if this had been said about a dark skinned person, I'd lay money on it, that THAT would be called out as a racist statement.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
OH goodness NO!!
Please, no unions. What we need is for congress to manage, and regulate PROPERLY, immigration into the US. Enforce out borders, and effectively regulate who comes and goes.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
"the right policies that could help put Computer Science — which is undeniably the most important 21st Century skill..."
Isn't this a bit like saying: in the 1950's undeniably the most important skill was operating and repairing TVs and video transmission equipment.
Just because a technology's new, doesn't make it the most important. If anything skills making pharmaceuticals and treatments for human diseases is a much more important skill, let alone robotics and engineering.
There's only so much you can do with a compiler, OS, or a database after all.
This Sig does not Exist.
The last thing IT needs is Unions. End of story.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
What is meant by "more PE" in the title?
Premature ejaculation?
Penis enlargement?
Physical education?
Pulmonary embolism?
Polyethylene?
I haven't ever heard it put in exactly those terms, but it makes more sense to me now. We are all going to get old, and while we may or may not be as effective as a younger (and cheaper) employee, that doesn't mean we are valueless or unable to do the work. By and large the young can pickup and move more easily (god knows I did my fair share of that to advance my career), and they can take more chances. When you are old and just need to hang on 5 more years to retire, that Union starts to look a lot more beneficial.
Don't let Chelsea's out of touch talk throw off your opinion of NCWIT. Here is what probably should have made slashdot from conference: http://www.ncwit.org/video/201...