Simon Peyton-Jones on computer science in school curriculums [video]
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Re: Simon Peyton-Jones on computer science in school curriculums [video]
#2Shriram Krishnamurthi of Brown University already accomplished this and gave a great talk about the problems of creating a new course, when you can just shove it into the existing math classes without needing to hire thousands of specialist teachers or worry about yet another mandatory class where schools reduce the rigor, or worry about students not even being able to take the class because they are in remedial classes and never even make it to a computational elective https://youtu.be/5c0BvOlR5gs
Re: Simon Peyton-Jones on computer science in school curriculums [video]
#3Shriram Krishnamurthi of Brown University already accomplished this and gave a great talk about the problems of creating a new course, when you can just shove it into the existing math classes without needing to hire thousands of specialist teachers or worry about yet another mandatory class where schools reduce the rigor, or worry about students not even being able to take the class because they are in remedial clas…
What a coincidence, I just started watching his Programming Languages Theory lectures. Seems like a wonderful professor.
Re: Simon Peyton-Jones on computer science in school curriculums [video]
#4I really enjoy listening to SPJ on almost any topic. He seems so friendly as well as knowledgeable. And humble! I already like Haskell, but I bet he could convince me to like almost anything else.
Re: Simon Peyton-Jones on computer science in school curriculums [video]
#5Just my 2c but this is one of the worst ideas.
First, this was designed by politicians who I am sure everyone on this sub would hate (basically, the Brexit boys). The stated aim was to be more elitist: make subjects much harder, encourage smart children...and dumb children...well...sorry, if you are dumb when we test you at 11 then you will be digging ditches.
Second, the logic for this came from people who had never taught in schools. Again, the people above declared war on teachers. And then took advice on how to educate children from people who had only worked in tertiary education (I actually support a lot of the principles but the implementation has been beyond dire, and loaded with corruption).
Third, try explaining programming without computers to a child. There are so many abstract concepts...it is just insane. I understand why an academic thinks this is a good idea. More jobs for the boys. But it still makes no sense.
Fourth, this feeds into the aspect of British culture that reveres irrelevant knowledge (and despises practice). Nowhere is this more evident that in CS departments. Example: the UK has great CS depts but no innovation within business. The university local to me has a top ML department, they have been doing speech recognition since the 60s...all the PHds leave, there is only one speech recognition startup in the city...and that is govt-funded afaik. Taking advice from people like the OP is suicidal.
Re: Simon Peyton-Jones on computer science in school curriculums [video]
#6Shriram Krishnamurthi of Brown University already accomplished this and gave a great talk about the problems of creating a new course, when you can just shove it into the existing math classes without needing to hire thousands of specialist teachers or worry about yet another mandatory class where schools reduce the rigor, or worry about students not even being able to take the class because they are in remedial clas…
Ah the take over by the Maths department - just what we need
Re: Simon Peyton-Jones on computer science in school curriculums [video]
#7Thanks for sharing this!
Re: Simon Peyton-Jones on computer science in school curriculums [video]
#8Shriram Krishnamurthi of Brown University already accomplished this and gave a great talk about the problems of creating a new course, when you can just shove it into the existing math classes without needing to hire thousands of specialist teachers or worry about yet another mandatory class where schools reduce the rigor, or worry about students not even being able to take the class because they are in remedial clas…
Thanks for sharing this!
Re: Simon Peyton-Jones on computer science in school curriculums [video]
#9I really enjoy listening to SPJ on almost any topic. He seems so friendly as well as knowledgeable. And humble! I already like Haskell, but I bet he could convince me to like almost anything else.
It's funny - i also share your views but i don't remember enjoying his lectures at Glasgow Uni. That was a wee while ago now but i really enjoy his modern stuff.
Re: Simon Peyton-Jones on computer science in school curriculums [video]
#10What a fantastic call to arms! I'm tempted to get involved myself after watching this talk. I couldn't agree more with everything SPJ said.