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Barbie Will Be Used To Teach Kids To Code (engadget.com)
Mattel and Tynker are teaming up to launch seven new Barbie-themed coding lessons this coming summer. "The curriculum, aimed at teaching girls about computer programming, will also expose them to potential careers like becoming a veterinarian, astronaut, or robotics engineer," reports Engadget. "The larger goal is to introduce coding to 10 million kids by 2020." From the report: The Barbie programming curriculum has been designed for beginners grades K and up. It puts learners in career roles alongside Barbie as it introduces concepts gradually. It's not all just Barbie, of course, with a few different initiatives coming in 2018, including a Mattel code-a-thon and teacher outreach program as well as involvement in the Hour of Code in December.
"For close to 75 years, Mattel has taken a visionary approach to advancing play for kids around the world, most recently promoting computer programming and other STEM skills alongside iconic brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels and Monster High," said Tynker's Krishna Vedati in a statement. "We are very excited by this expanded partnership and the ambitious -- but achievable -- goal of teaching 10 million kids to learn to code by 2020 using Mattel brands."
"For close to 75 years, Mattel has taken a visionary approach to advancing play for kids around the world, most recently promoting computer programming and other STEM skills alongside iconic brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels and Monster High," said Tynker's Krishna Vedati in a statement. "We are very excited by this expanded partnership and the ambitious -- but achievable -- goal of teaching 10 million kids to learn to code by 2020 using Mattel brands."
It's not a report. It's an article. A "reporter" may write the article, but unless it's a specially commissioned document and not one of many articles in a periodical publication, it isn't a "report."
BeauHD and msmash have been hitting the copy-paste just about every story and calling TFA a "report" for the past week or so.
Interesting. You seem to think that geeks play with He-Man.
LEGO, my dear SJW, LEGO is the geek's only friend. Notice that it has no gender. Nerd geek, babe geek, all geeks are welcome.
He-Man, Barbie, are just tools to get SJWs all excited.
"Do women have that degree of inherent autism brought about by an environment which offers them no options, no friends, etc other than to sit alone in a room for years learning how to do some extremely specialized thing?"
This is spot on. The only fucking way to get any good at this weird job is seclusion, for years. Sounds funny, like a joke except it is not.
a barbie coal miner? plumber? garbage collector? mechanic? truck driver?
not good argument?
how about this: stop raising your children based on your inferiority complexes
someone might say "Hey stupid, they are teaching kids something useful!" Well, they don't. Programming is a métier. It's the same as plumbing, wood crafting, smithing, e.t.c.. It's like teaching your kid to be an employee. Why don't they make barbie teach kids physics? math? astronomy? chemistry? literature? music? Because there's an inferiority complex and they feel that little girls' whole purpose from now on is to mimic/copy/compete nerd boys who suffer their whole life with their anti-social occupation and habits.
to make more money for Mattell.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
If you're trying to raise your child to be the next blue-collar peon, then by all means this is how to do it. You can teach "coding", and they'll get paid minimum-wage to "code".
This is precisely the same as painting. You can teach your child to paint, and they'll be able to paint walls.
But you can't teach creativity, creative innovation, nor artistic creative innovation -- that means problem solving.
I don't think that you'll find an experienced programmer, successful and senior and making real money, who isn't mostly self-taught.
Humans learn problem solving in the only manner than any living thing has ever learned problem solving skills -- by having problems and fighting with them until someone wins.
If girls don't have the patience, or the dedication, or the motivation, or the self esteem to work a problem alone, until it's gone. . .if a person insists on direct hand-holding (as opposed to documentation or occasional guidance) to work out a solution to a problem affecting them. . .then this ain't a'gonna be their day-job, so to speak. This ain't their forte.
In the past two weeks, I've watched girls take the "shallow side" of the mountain in slope-style, get lifted in skating, and basically do push-ups from their knees -- a.k.a. "girlie push-ups". I'm no athlete, I sit at a desk 80 hours a week, but when I go to the gym next to the jocks, I play the same game they do. There's a mutual respect in that. When I golf (I don't golf) I play from the same tees as the regular golfers (the ladies tees are in-front of the amateurs, by the way).
Women don't deserve equal respect for playing a dumbed-down version, just like they wouldn't deserve equal pay for dumbed-down work.
I've recently been convinced that all of this is engrained into girls at a young age -- that they aren't as good as men, aren't as strong as men, aren't as fast as men. I have no idea if that's true of gladiator men, or hockey playing men, but I promise you that most women are faster and stronger than I am.
But I wasn't raised by Barbie. I was raised by Mr. Wizard. Maybe the hockey playing men were raised by G.I. Joe?
I am impressed by Barbie today though. She's come a long way. You wouldn't expect coding from someone who used to think that "math is hard".