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Google, Facebook, Microsoft Deliver K-12 CS Demands To Congress (politico.com)
theodp writes: Politico reports that just one day after Facebook launched TechPrep, a highly-publicized initiative to attract more minorities and women to coding, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Code.org quietly sent a letter to top education lawmakers in the House and Senate insisting that computer science "must" be added to the list of "core academic subjects" and states be given resources to improve STEM education programs. "Computer science is marginalized throughout K-12 education," reads the letter. "We need to improve access for all students, particularly groups who have traditionally been underrepresented." Echoing the last point at this month's Grace Hopper Women in Computer Celebration, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki called for mandatory computer science in schools, suggesting that boys — like her own son — are monopolizing the family computer across America, leaving girls — like her own daughter — out of the conversation when it comes to technology (video @38:33). The new round of hand-wringing comes as tech companies face the deadline for filing their 2015 EEO-1 surveys and seek more tech-friendly U.S. visa and OPT STEM policies, so it's probably worth remembering that Microsoft proposed tech could turn workforce diversity lemons into H-1B visa lemonade by connecting tech immigration to K-12 CS education.
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Mosnter Deliver K-12 Chemistry Demands To Congress ...
do you get better CS grads or do you get better "human resources" for companies like Microsoft, Google, whatever
Where are our famously underfunded schools going to get the money to teach all this CS to the lowest common denominator, anyway?
So the CEO of Youtube can't afford a second computer for her daughter?
Like NOW and other Feminist groups haven't done enough to propel girls ahead of boys in education (and other things).
Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Code.org quietly sent a letter to top education lawmakers in the House and Senate insisting that computer science "must" be added to the list of "core academic subjects" and states be given resources to improve STEM education programs.
"We are starting to have to pay programmers real money," reads the letter. "We need more warm bodies in the market to drive salaries down."
Echoing the last point at this month's Grace Hopper Women in Computer Celebration, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki called for mandatory computer science in schools, suggesting that boys â" like her own son â" are monopolizing the family computer across America, leaving girls â" like her own daughter â" out of the conversation when it comes to technology
Ahhh, I was wondering what was so interesting about this post, it has some sexist bullshit. I dug down into there and got this tidbit:
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Critical thinking when listening to politicians / Reading the news
How the legal system actually works and what a citizen needs to know about it.
Contracts and you.
Basic rights of citizens and how not to be taken advantage of.
What you need to know to start a business.
Now arguably these would benefit everyone and not so much Google and Microsoft.
It's like they don't actually know the level of technology that most people know in a K-12 school. How do they plan to dump people straight into programming when most people's knowledge of the actual workings of a computer is nowhere near the point where they could program anything meaningful? You could probably ask the average person at a K-12 school a basic question like "What's a home directory?" and they wouldn't be able to answer it. I'm all for computer classes (my elementary school forced everyone to learn typing with a cloth over their hands so they couldn't hunt and peck) but suggesting that CS should be in K-12 schools is like saying that we should teach brain surgery in K-12 before we teach them what the different parts of a brain do.
An increase in the amount of K-12 H1-B Indian children allowed for importation.
"Alright, I've been thinking. When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade! Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons; what am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down... with the lemons! I'm gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!'" Cave Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
How about this: we'll trade you.
My guess is that if given a directive to teach "computer science" to all students, many schools will interpret that as "teach kids how to use a computer", meaning teach them to use e-mail, a spreadsheet, etc., plus maybe some "coding" (HTML). This seems to be what is in the "computer technology" classes my kids were forced into.
Those seem like garbage classes to me.
But... what should all people with a basic general education know about computer science?
Programming? It wouldn't be bad, I suppose, but it seems overkill. The fundamentals of how a computer works seems like a good idea, the major pieces and parts. What I think would be really valuable is a basic understanding of what computers cannot do. A little information theory, maybe? Should that be part of a math class? As a security guy, I'd really like the general populace to understand entropy and randomness as they relate to passwords and other user authenticators, and something about how computer security really works... what a vulnerability, what is an exploit, what is a virus, what is malware, etc.
What do you think an average high school graduate know about computer science and technology?
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Google, Facebook, Microsoft need script-kiddies that they don't have to spend money training
sent a letter to top education lawmakers in the House and Senate
K-12 education isn't a federal program, even if the Dept. of Education is a busybody. K-12 education works best when managed at the local level.
insisting that computer science "must" be added to the list of "core academic subjects"
Core subjects K-12 would be things like math, english, history and basic science.
[insisting that] states be given resources to improve STEM education programs.
Money grows on federal trees? Federal funding is lets the camel's nose into the tent. Once the states are used to having that "free money", the feds can demand anything they want. Like Michelle Obama's idiotic ideas on school nutrition. How about eliminating all federal educational involvement, instead?
"Computer science is marginalized throughout K-12 education,"
Because it isn't a core subject, nor should it be.
"We need to improve access for all students, particularly groups who have traditionally been underrepresented."
Why?
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Stop hiring h1b's and lower college costs
Instead of excellence, the modern educational system says: "These students are interested in something, so let's educate a different group on the topic!"
People should be saying: "These students are interested in computer programming, let's make them better programmers!" Demand should be created through the celebration of accomplishments.
Taking away the achievements of the interested, results in mediocrity. Yes, it would be nice to have more girls in computer programming. However, the goal of the educational system is often to make everyone the same. To make the interested boys equal to the uninterested girls. Is this the solution we want? Because that is what the school system will implement. The modern school system is very good at targeting the average (or the below average). It sucks at enabling gifted students to excel.
if you know how to get the blue collar types to stop giving a rat's ass about social issues, stop blaming Unions for their troubles and get them voting for popularist economic policies that are in their best interest again please let me know.
Whenever someone tells me they know what's in my best interest, I worry.
And why does it have to be the blue collar types that have to stop caring about social issues? They are not the ones bringing up these social issue topics. The democrats progressives are and the people react to them.
People don't realize how much the political landscape has changed in the past 10 years. The democrat party is more in bed with wall-street than the republicans could have ever dreamed of. When you throw in the tech and entertainment industry, you realize that the bulk of the 1% are dmeocrats playing lip service to people like you that don't realize that the landscape shifted beneath them.
Well they did say it only "preceded the recent smartwatch trend". I don't think they were saying that she invented it or was even a first adopter.
Okay, yeah, she's not an engineer. Still, probably not bad for a kid who previously didn't have any desire to interact with a computer at all.
My only interest in that story is whether she actually likes working with computers now enough to become a programmer. Or is she still going to be a business or art history major when she goes to college because she's not really all that interested in the field except as something she did at "Summer Camp my Mom made me go to".
Computer science starts whenever you have the interest and skills to learn it. Most of the early CS shit I learned in college I could have done in junior high school. The rest of it was more dependent upon being able to find resources and a teacher who was able to give me some instruction on theory. That *could* be done in high school. Maybe not my senior classes, but certainly a substantial chunk of it could have been in HS.
I think we should have more CS resources in HS... for the willing. In no way should CS be on some standardized test taught by teachers who have a class full of bored kids. That will just suck money away from use on students who are actually interested in it, and will put that money to good use.
I always noticed there are ten times more women in computers than men.
Well yeah. Women tend to be smaller than men, and computer cases have gotten much smaller over the years.
I live in a poor area, not so poor as to be destitute but much of it seems to be by choice. I'm way out in the woods of Maine. We have a small (56 students) elementary school which is part of a larger district but the town opts to keep the elementary school close instead of busing the kids further away. After hemming and hawing to determine which was best, the solitary IT guy is a friend of mine, we decided that the iPod fit the bill. So, I bought all the kids an iPod and the bonus is that they can keep their inexpensive laptops from three years ago when I did that instead. Apple was pretty decent about it and gave me an excellent price - I got a dozen extras as they're expecting to have a few new students next year and some will, inevitably, break.
I imagine that this doesn't work for everyone and everywhere but there's little things you can do to help. If you can ease the burden in one area, perhaps that frees up resources for use in another area? I donate a lot of my old hardware and, when home, I try to donate time as well. They've got their own little computer lab set up and seem to have fun with it. In a couple of years, I'll re-evaluate the landscape and pick a new item to donate. The teachers all make good use of them and the children really appreciate it. I get nommy foods, Christmas cards, Valentines's Day cards, and get invited to plays and stuff. They're absolutely horrific actors and musicians but I go because they're expecting me to take them over to the bowling alley afterwards and buy them pizza.
It's my job. It's what I'm supposed to do. Even if you can only do a little, do that. I'm away from home, I have been for nearly two months, but I still stay in contact. I do think it's nearly time to meander back in that direction but I need to get a few things taken care of first.
I guess, thinking about your comment about blue collar folks, I don't know how to change others. I do know how to change myself. I guess that's my point, really. Do what you can, even if it's just a little. The little bastards appreciate even the smallest of things. I'm going to get the monsters a PA system with auto-tune... (Probably not, their off-key singing and music is part of the charm.)
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
We stopped, entirely, teaching critical thinking. We substituted teaching civics in favor of teaching 'social studies.' The outcome does not surprise me.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
FFS what a mountain of bullshit!
My family of 7 probably survives on less than she spends on lunches and we still have one screen per person.
If your child has a bad attitude to anything it is because you are a bad parent, not because of anything your son does.
if you can afford a PC. Lots of families can't. They've gotten so cheap we forgot that there are real poor in this country for whom $200 might as well be $200,000. 62% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
On another note, you're unusually bright (assuming you learned on your own). Either that or you just happen to have access to some really, really good magazines. Or both. Either way what do you do if you hit a wall for whatever reason and there isn't a Magazine there for you? If you have a mentor you'll get past it, but odds are if you're one of those dirt poor kids you don't have that.
I guess there's always your bootstraps. It's telling that the metaphor we use for self reliance is physically impossible. Could it be that almost nobody really makes it on their own? For all it makes us uncomfortable maybe, just maybe, there is something to the phrase "You didn't build it".
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I'm serious. There is such a thing as being right, you know? Yes, people are out to get you, but you can't let that get in the way of using the tools that are available to you. What's the old saying: The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing you he didn't exist. Well the greatest trick the Right Wing every played was convincing you to abandon gov't out of fear. They right wing haven't abandoned gov't. They use it to their advantage. Here's another way to think of it. Imagine there's an open crate of fully loaded automatic rifles. There's a couple guys running around shooting people. Do you look at the rifles and say "I'm not gonna pick that up, I might shoot my eye out!". That's gov't. A powerful, dangerous tool. But a tool that's going to get used whether you like it or not.
As for the dems aren't even close to the level of the Republicans, though plenty have tried. But I'll take what I can get. Bernie Sanders is a good start.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
what I see are cycles of poverty reinforced by decisions that aren't made by the children. They don't choose for their moms to drink a little while they're pregnant, or not eat enough or see the doctor enough because of poverty (the Republicans have been chipping away at WIC for ages). They don't pick their underfunded schools with their 49 student class sizes full of special ed kids that disrupt the class every 5 minutes (if they try to go to the nice districts their parents get in trouble, a woman went to jail for it, google it). They don't choose to come from broken homes with no father because he had no job because it was shipped off to Mexico when free trade kicked in. They pick none of that
Put another way, why is it that after 250 years of bad discussions being made before their born that when a kid turns 18 their suppose to magically ignore all that, reach for their boot straps and solve all their problems? As a teacher you must know it's physically to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, right?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
boys — like her own son — are monopolizing the family computer across America
There is an easy fix: buy a second computer. I am certain the CEO of Youtube can afford that.
What's wrong with Susan Wojcicki? Surely she can afford enough computing devices for everyone in her family. What a case of messed up priorities.
Google, Facebook, Microsoft deliver K-12 demands
"I want my two dollars!"
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.