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K-12 CS Framework Draft: Kids Taught To 'Protect Original Ideas' In Early Grades
theodp writes: Remember that Code.org and ACM-bankrolled K-12 Computer Science Education Framework that Microsoft, Google, Apple, and others were working on? Well, a draft of the framework was made available for review on Feb. 3rd, coincidentally just 3 business days after U.S. President Barack Obama and Microsoft President Brad Smith teamed up to announce the $4+ billion Computer Science for All initiative for the nation's K-12 students. "Computationally literate citizens have the responsibility to learn about, recognize, and address the personal, ethical, social, economic, and cultural contexts in which they operate," explains the section on Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture, one of seven listed 'Core K-12 CS Practices'. "Participating in an inclusive computing culture encompasses the following: building and collaborating with diverse computational teams, involving diverse users in the design process, considering the implication of design choices on the widest set of end users, accounting for the safety and security of diverse end users, and fostering inclusive identities of computer scientists." Hey, do as they say, not as they do! Also included in the 10-page draft (pdf) is a section on Law and Ethics, which begins: "In early grades, students differentiate between responsible and irresponsible computing behaviors. Students learn that responsible behaviors can help individuals while irresponsible behaviors can hurt individuals. They examine legal and ethical considerations for obtaining and sharing information and apply those behaviors to protect original ideas."
Kids will learn to protect original ideas.
So they'll learn not to protect unoriginal ideas like 99.9% of software patents.
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get them while they are young.
It sounds like this is more of framework that is mostly about educational standards for teaching right-think in CS. There is a horrific amount of PC buzzwords in there,when the real focus of education should be teaching students the skills they need.
This crazy overreach with indoctrination in schools is unsettling. Apart from the pledge of allegiance, it was pretty subtle and frowned upon when I was in school. I think most teachers actually cared about teaching and kept the crazies who wanted to use the position to indoctrinate in check.
Now it's the other way around.
Sounds like a pretty good argument for taking the federal government out of education entirely.
Centralized mind control through propaganda; acculturation of our nation's youth to silence, oppression, and acquiescence to authority; normalization of the police state; blind nationalism through a fantastic daily "pledge." All of these things are strong counterarguments to the "fair and equal opportunity/better education for all " kind of rhetoric that comes out of Washington.
Seriously, think of the children. Think of all the misguided ideas their heads will be filled with. Think of the cultural values they will be taught to cherish and those they will be taught to revile. Think of the world they will grow up to accept or even create.
Whatever happened to civics class?
Teach your children well... and keep them far, far away from federally funded schools.
I was worried for a moment that generations of elementary school children would be forced to suffer through actual computer science content, like programming, sorting, assembly language, and computer architecture. I'm relieved that my worries were unfounded: they just seem to be forced to suffer through the same social activist crap they already have to sit through, except instead of the penguin getting along with the lion, it will now be expressed in the more kid-friendly terms of "inclusive design" and "team diversity". Yay!
I know this will get me labeled as a right-wing crazy (even though I'm not, I'm equally disgusted with the political-right), but this is such a perfect microcosm of what the Democratic Party actually pushes vs what they say they want to accomplish:
1. Push diversity in a field that is already pretty diverse (unless you exclude Asians, which these people always do).
2. Switch the focus from technical knowledge to social grouping (they tried this in Math in the 90's with obviously poor results).
3. Don't pirate movies or music! Those are our biggest campaign donors^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H ethical concerns!
I think GP is referring to Common Core
That makes no sense, since CC does not specify any teaching method, only objectives.
Most people opposed to Common Core have little idea what it actually is. Democrats tend to oppose it because they oppose anything that may lead to accountability. Republicans tend to oppose it because, although it was their idea, Obama is now for it, so that means they have to be against it.
Besides, I doubt if there are many cashiers, competent or not, that were educated in arithmetic under Common Core, which has only been around for a few years.