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Google: Poor Kids Might Grasp Macbeth If They Code Like Kids At $43K/Yr School

Posted by Soulskill on from the fair-is-foul-and-foul-is-fair dept.

theodp writes: While the CollegeBoard warned against drawing a causal link between learning computer science and improved learning in other subjects, Google has no such qualms. "CS is much more than computer programming and coding," writes the Google for Education blog in a post announcing a new gateway for Google's CS education opportunities. "It's a gateway to creativity and innovation not just in technology but in fields as diverse as music, sports, the arts, and health." Among the technology showcased at the gateway is Pencil Code, a programming tool for beginning coders that Google boasts is already helping kids attending the $43K-a-year Beaver Country Day School to brush up their Shakespeare by having students create interactive chatbots that play the part of characters like Lady Macbeth. "After completing this code I knew more and understood more of the play," begins one student's featured testimonial. "It allowed me to interpret Macbeth in a new way that I had never thought of before. I really enjoyed using Pencil Code because it made coding simpler for me and helped me try something new." Elsewhere on its CS gateway, Google laments that a new Google-Gallup Research Study shows that 'Blacks and low-income are less likely to have access' to such computer science opportunities.

4 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Underestimating by jblues · · Score: 4, Funny

    I often find myself under-estimating children's abilities. In this case TFA child's programming, empathy and literature skills are impressive, but their ability to speak such fluent 'customer testimonial' at a young age is simply astounding.

    --
    If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
  2. Re:Oh bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, their parents are poor which means they obviously made poor life choices [citation needed]. And since poor choice making is clearly hereditary [citation needed], even if the kids haven't made poor choices YET they likely would have if the ball had been in their court [citation needed]. So it hardly matters from an ethical perspective.

  3. Re:Nobody is holding 'poor' kids back... by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1, Funny

    Eh, what?

    I'm a Buddhist, and I live in Sweden.

    Care to try again?

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  4. Re:This old geek could never grasp Macbeth by hawguy · · Score: 3, Funny

    So what the fuck is so hot about grasping that "to be or not tobe" thingy?

    2B | ~2B = FF is simple binary arithmetic, if you can't grasp that maybe you shouldn't be a developer.