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President Obama calls on every American to learn code

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Re: President Obama calls on every American to learn code

#181

Post by vasilipupkin »

United857 wrote: post #159
jmduke wrote: post #21

A lot of people are getting attached to the "every American" aspect of things, and I think its important to note the distance between "knowing how to code" and "becoming a programmer." Amateur programming (for lack of a better term) like basic Python for data analysis or HTML/CSS to work on Wordpress sites (Hell, one of my friends who's a Social Media Manager learned Python to create some QoL scripts for her day-to-d…

We teach writing as a required subject in schools, without the expectation that everyone is going to be a professional writer. We teach science without the expectation that everyone is going to be a scientist. We teach physical education without the expectation that everyone is going to be a professional athlete. These are all good life skills to have even if you don't learn enough to make it your career. So it shoul…

Just because we currently teach everyone trigonometry, it does not mean we should also teach everyone X. What exactly is the point of knowing how to code a little, without being very good or proficient at it, which most people won't be able to attain ? But I do agree that every school should have C.S. curricula as an option, not as a requirement

Re: President Obama calls on every American to learn code

#182

Post by smokeyj »

United857 wrote: post #159
jmduke wrote: post #21

A lot of people are getting attached to the "every American" aspect of things, and I think its important to note the distance between "knowing how to code" and "becoming a programmer." Amateur programming (for lack of a better term) like basic Python for data analysis or HTML/CSS to work on Wordpress sites (Hell, one of my friends who's a Social Media Manager learned Python to create some QoL scripts for her day-to-d…

We teach writing as a required subject in schools, without the expectation that everyone is going to be a professional writer. We teach science without the expectation that everyone is going to be a scientist. We teach physical education without the expectation that everyone is going to be a professional athlete. These are all good life skills to have even if you don't learn enough to make it your career. So it shoul…

Teach people to learn on their own and set their own agenda. Wouldn't that be radical.

Re: President Obama calls on every American to learn code

#183

Post by contacternst »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #181
United857 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We teach writing as a required subject in schools, without the expectation that everyone is going to be a professional writer. We teach science without the expectation that everyone is going to be a scientist. We teach physical education without the expectation that everyone is going to be a professional athlete. These are all good life skills to have even if you don't learn enough to make it your career. So it shoul…

Just because we currently teach everyone trigonometry, it does not mean we should also teach everyone X. What exactly is the point of knowing how to code a little, without being very good or proficient at it, which most people won't be able to attain ? But I do agree that every school should have C.S. curricula as an option, not as a requirement

We certainly don't currently teach everyone trig...

Re: President Obama calls on every American to learn code

#184

Post by Tuftelien »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #167
United857 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We teach writing as a required subject in schools, without the expectation that everyone is going to be a professional writer. We teach science without the expectation that everyone is going to be a scientist. We teach physical education without the expectation that everyone is going to be a professional athlete. These are all good life skills to have even if you don't learn enough to make it your career. So it shoul…

We should also be teaching how to change a tire, how to cook basic nutritious meals, personal finance, etc.. “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a compu…

> how to cook basic nutritious meals, personal finance, etc..

This is already being taught (atleast here in Norway.)

Re: President Obama calls on every American to learn code

#185

Post by NAFV_P »

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Re: President Obama calls on every American to learn code

#186

Post by MaggieL »

bluthru wrote: post #79
MaggieL wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rating Congress by "number of bills passed" is as smart as rating coders based on number of lines of code written.

I get what you're driving at, but the analogy doesn't quite work. We want software to perform functions and we don't care about the amount of lines of code to achieve this. We also want our government to perform functions, and law is how they achieve this. Your stance would make sense if we were in a state that didn't need improvement.

We don't want government to simply "perform functions". The best government is the least government. Like code, we want no more government than is absolutely necessary, and I say we have way too much government already. Your stance would make sense only if adding more laws would improve things.

Re: President Obama calls on every American to learn code

#187

Post by toomuchtodo »

Tuftelien wrote: post #184
toomuchtodo wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should also be teaching how to change a tire, how to cook basic nutritious meals, personal finance, etc.. “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a compu…

> how to cook basic nutritious meals, personal finance, etc.. This is already being taught (atleast here in Norway.)

Unfortunately, in the US, it isn't being taught :(

Re: President Obama calls on every American to learn code

#188

Post by mikeleeorg »

As a parent, here is how I interpret this:

Obama isn't saying my child MUST learn how to program. He is just highly encouraging it. And as a parent looking toward the future, I will highly encourage it as well.

However, that's just one useful skill. I believe a lot of skills are very useful. Knowing how to cook, how to change a tire, how to balance a personal budget, etc, are all extremely useful. They aren't mandatory; it's possible to get through life without knowing them, but life will be that much easier with them.

So I'll be exposing my child to computer programming, as well as a litany of other things. My aim isn't to turn her into a computer scientist, it's to give her another valuable skill as she figures out what she wants to do with her life. If it's to become a programmer, awesome. If it's to become a doctor, or dancer, or whatever, equally awesome. But at least she'll have exposure (but not necessarily mastery) of a range of useful skills.

Re: President Obama calls on every American to learn code

#189

Post by rjtavares »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #167
United857 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We teach writing as a required subject in schools, without the expectation that everyone is going to be a professional writer. We teach science without the expectation that everyone is going to be a scientist. We teach physical education without the expectation that everyone is going to be a professional athlete. These are all good life skills to have even if you don't learn enough to make it your career. So it shoul…

We should also be teaching how to change a tire, how to cook basic nutritious meals, personal finance, etc.. “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a compu…

I hate that quote. It starts fine, but then reaches a stupid conclusion. I wonder how much worse our life would have been without centuries of specialization: in science, in education, in business...

Re: President Obama calls on every American to learn code

#190

Post by aestra »

mikeleeorg wrote: post #163
wes-exp wrote: post #150

It's easy to point to the feel-good topic of education and cry foul when anyone is against it. But here is the reality. America already overproduces scientists and engineers. The whole notion of talent shortages is generally hot air from special interests (in this case, tech companies) who want a cheaper supply of labor and cannot bear the idea that skilled engineers actually cost a lot. A lot of effort is put into t…

America already overproduces scientists and engineers. Out of curiosity, do you have a link to any evidence or supporting materials to this claim? It's the first I've heard of it.

There's some conflicting reports and I read a pretty good analysis a while ago that convinced me, but I don't have it, here's some light reading.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-i...

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-real-truth-about-the-stem...

http://gizmodo.com/there-may-not-actually-be-a-shortage-of-s...

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-the-stem-job-advantage-a-myth...

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