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Today's 6th graders will hit their prime working years in 2030.
By that time, the "robot apocalypse" could be fully upon us. Automation and artificial intelligence could have eliminated half the jobs in the United States economy.
Or, plenty of jobs could still exist, but today's students could be locked in a fierce competition for a few richly rewarded positions requiring advanced technical and interpersonal skills. Robots and algorithms would take care of what used to be solid working- and middle-class jobs. And the kids who didn't get that cutting-edge computer science course or life-changing middle school project? They'd be relegated to a series of dead-end positions, serving the elites who did.
Alternatively, maybe Bill Gates and Elon Musk and the other big names ringing the alarm are wrong. A decade from now, perhaps companies will still complain they can't find employees who can read an instruction manual and pass a drug test. Maybe workers will still be able to hold on to the American Dream, so long as they can adjust to incremental technological shifts in the workplace.
Which vision will prove correct?
30 years into the Information Revolution and schools are only just now realizing they should teach kids how to code...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Friday December 15 2017, @01:48AM (1 child)
It's worse than that. Teaching coding when kids are young is a cruel waste of time, unless it's something like Logo Turtles. You shouldn't even try to program in a computer language until you're ready of elementary algebra, since the thought skills required are about the same.
This isn't to say that things like Scratch are a bad idea, but don't try to push them. A few kids will be able to take it and run with it, and let them. Most kids won't have a clue, and will just get turned off. A bad math teacher who tries to coerce kids to do math they aren't ready for is behind much of the hatred of math. Programming could go the same way.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Adamsjas on Friday December 15 2017, @02:42AM
A computer language is nothing like elementary algebra.
98% (number from ass) of programming is get it here. change it this way. put it there. count it. rinse. repeat.
Maths departments have fucked up more good programmer/analysts than than they can count.