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Arkansas Declares a High School CS Education State of Emergency
theodp writes: Aiming to deliver on Governor Asa Hutchinson's inspired-by-Code.org-and-others Plan For Job Creation Through Technology Education, the Arkansas House voted 99-0 last week to require high schools to offer [but not require] a course in computer science, either in a traditional or online setting, starting this fall. Hutchinson learned last December that the state has only 6 qualified instructors to teach CS to high school students, so it's envisioned that the courses will be offered online through Virtual Arkansas ("where AR kids are Our kids").
Interestingly, House Bill 1183 includes a pretty dire-sounding Emergency Clause: "It is found and determined by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas that computer science and technology skills are of vital importance to meet the growing needs of the workforce; that public school students need opportunities to develop computer science and technology skills in order to be competitive in the future; and that this act is immediately necessary to ensure that the Department of Education has the time necessary to develop and modify academic standards for computer science courses before beginning of the 2015-2016 school year. Therefore, an emergency is declared to exist, and this act being immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health, and safety shall become effective on: (1) The date of its approval by the Governor."
Interestingly, House Bill 1183 includes a pretty dire-sounding Emergency Clause: "It is found and determined by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas that computer science and technology skills are of vital importance to meet the growing needs of the workforce; that public school students need opportunities to develop computer science and technology skills in order to be competitive in the future; and that this act is immediately necessary to ensure that the Department of Education has the time necessary to develop and modify academic standards for computer science courses before beginning of the 2015-2016 school year. Therefore, an emergency is declared to exist, and this act being immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health, and safety shall become effective on: (1) The date of its approval by the Governor."
My programming skill was honed not in the classroom setting, rather, I got it from reading books, manuals, studying code examples of others, posting questions on programming forum, asking friends, experimenting, lots and lots of testing and experimenting
Since I never have any experience from attending 'programming classes' I won't comment on the merit or the de-merit of it, but I would like to ask the gurus over here ---
Do you think it is more beneficial for one to learn programming from a more structural form, in the classroom setting?
When I was in high school, we learned QBasic on IBM PS/2s. What's the current equivalent today? Nobody's completed the .net help file, so who has the book to teach it?
You do make a good point. By the time I got done with the C=64 and basic, I had almost tricked myself into computing. We have to start somewhere, and I fear that schools will try to teach the programming flavor of the month.
Baby Steps first.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I graduated from an Ohio public high school in 2007 which was part of the Ohio High School Transformation Initiative (OHSTI), which was driven by KnowledgeWorks Foundation, which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I was actually very happy to be part of this initiative, and took Cisco courses throughout my years there. While I didn't get my CCNA right out of the gate, I did get my IC3 and A+ certifications during high school, and was actually picked to join an excellent IT internship opportunity that turned into a full time job after graduating. After which I then got my CCNA's and tons of field experience (and pay raises). I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity!
In k-12, dealing with the child personality is more difficult than the subject material. This requires people with a good emotional IQ, and only mediocre science IQ. Alternate jobs include fast food worker (minimum wage), day care worker (minimum wage), social worker (not so good pay). Teacher pay ~$45k-$60k, and health care. Now, teachers have to lecture, prepare lesson plans, do paperwork, run after school activities, in addition to lecturing in class. I'd rather have cheaper social workers doing a lot of that extra work, but the voters in my district don't agree with me.