SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Is Computer Code a Foreign Language?
Maryland’s legislature is considering a bill to allow computer coding courses to fulfill the foreign language graduation requirement for high school. A similar bill passed the Florida State Senate in 2017 (but was ultimately rejected by the full Legislature), and a federal version proposed by Senators Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, and Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, is being considered in Congress.
The animating idea behind these bills is that computer coding has become a valuable skill. This is certainly true. But the proposal that foreign language learning can be replaced by computer coding knowledge is misguided: It stems from a widely held but mistaken belief that science and technology education should take precedence over subjects like English, history and foreign languages.
As a professor of languages and literatures, I am naturally skeptical of such a position. I fervently believe that foreign language learning is essential for children’s development into informed and productive citizens of the world. But even more urgent is my alarm at the growing tendency to accept and even foster the decline of the sort of interpersonal human contact that learning languages both requires and cultivates.
[...] The difference between natural and computer languages is not merely one of degree, with natural languages’ involving vocabularies that are several orders of magnitude larger than those of computer languages. Natural languages aren’t just more complex versions of the algorithms with which we teach machines to do tasks; they are also the living embodiments of our essence as social animals. We express our love and our losses, explore beauty, justice and the meaning of our existence, and even come to know ourselves all through natural languages.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 25 2019, @06:16PM
This may be news for you, but... we don't require calculus for graduation.
My wife's sister whined to us that she had to pass an algebra class in college. In college!!! In other words, she graduated from high school without it. I see that in the graduation requirements for my kid's college too; a bit of trivial algebra, just 7th grade to the better students, is all that is required.
Being able to solve a calculus problem is far less valuable than being able to set one up. If you can set one up, then you can look up how to solve it. That is of use, though most people would benefit more from statistics.
Really though, we don't seriously require math. Kids who struggle with it are diagnosed with bullshit learning disabilities and then allowed to graduate without math, destroying the value of a high school diploma for everybody. (this is partly why college is required for so many jobs) Those who don't get diagnosed are still getting away with just being able to punch numbers into a calculator. Really, it is that bad and sometimes worse.