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Within a few years, every single student in the San Francisco Unified School District will be studying computer science, at all grade levels.
The city’s Board of Education unanimously approved the measure during its weekly meeting on Tuesday evening.
"Information technology is now the fastest growing job sector in San Francisco, but too few students currently have access to learn the Computer Science skills that are crucial for such careers," Board President Emily Murase said in a statement on Wednesday. "We are proud to be at the forefront of creating a curriculum that will build on the knowledge and skills students will need starting as early as preschool."
According to the district, computer science classes are relatively rare across the United States.
"Currently, no national, state, or local standards exist for Computer Science and the academic research in Computer Science education is quite limited," the board wrote. "As such, a cohesive progression of Computer Science knowledge and skills does not yet exist."
It's the year 2015. Why isn't CompSci a mandatory part of the curriculum everywhere in America? It was at my gymnasium (academic high school) in Germany, and that was 25 years ago.
Original Submission
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 14 2015, @07:16AM
AC posted above, "Computer science is a branch of applied mathematics."
I've seen almost no "computer science" in any computer sciences classes offered by schools anywhere near me. Almost all "computer science" classes that I've had any exposure to, involved learning the Microsoft way of doing things. MS Office, MS Excel, MS this, MS that.
My youngest son has a degree in mathematics - well, actually two degrees now. He does stuff that I can't understand anymore, working primarily in the medical field. Basically, the doctors and interns come to him, and ask him to set up, or even to build programs so that they can do the research they want to do. That stuff is so far over my head, I can't even figure out what he's doing, or how good he is at it.
But, he didn't learn his stuff in public school "computer science" classes. He didn't even learn half of it in college level "computer science" classes. He learned the important stuff in math classes, and engineering classes.
So, my question is - WTF is San Francisco going to mandate as "computer science"? Are they going to accelerate kids in math related classes, or are they just going to have them doing more "keyboarding" and other silly shit? Fifteen years of straight A grades in Microsoft Excel isn't going to make a computer scientist.
Seriously - keyboarding. My eldest son knows ten thousand shortcuts on the frigging keyboard - but he can't make a computer do much more than play games. This is "science"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @08:02AM
There's no science needed to use social media to scam people out of their money. Forget about Excel and keyboarding. Advertising, marketing, tweeting, and Facebooking, these are the hot skills in computer "science" today.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday June 14 2015, @08:58AM
how tape and disk worked and so on.
In a course that taught DEC-System 10 BASIC.
I feel I am far better off as a result of learning how computers actually work at the gate level before I ever learned how to program them.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @09:20AM
You know how computers actually work? Don't ever tell anybody you know anything, because knowledge is for low-paid curry-eating losers. If you want to make real money, you have to be an ignorant executive who manages the curry-eating idiots who actually think knowledge is power. Knowledge isn't power. Power is power. Get back to work, knowledge workers! You're interchangeable and replaceable! Stupid little monkeys are always trying to climb the executive ladder where they don't belong.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday June 14 2015, @09:47AM
I think it was his grandfather's take, who was an investor.
From low pay to high pay, there are people who work with tools, people who work with people and people who work with money.
Coders are at the high end of people who work with tools. No doubt at the low end of those who work with money are those who operate payday loan shops.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @11:59AM
"How to exploit curry-eating losers and curry deficient losers for profit and fun while making the government (people) pay for it" - be successful now! ;)
They key seems to get power so that one can grab more power. Catch-22 is how to get started..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @11:47AM
I've seen almost no "computer science" in any computer sciences classes offered by schools anywhere near me.
I totally agree. But just because it's currently being done incorrectly doesn't mean that it shouldn't be done correctly. Teach kids how to "think"; how to "work a problem out"; how to "plan/plot/list the steps that are involved to complete a goal". Some of the most fundamental parts of computer science have nothing to do with computers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @11:00PM
Depends on where you look.
Robert Pogson was a teacher in the last years of his working life.
He immediately found M$'s stuff to be unworkable.
In no small part, that was the time sink of dealing with malware.
He discovered Linux, put that on the boxes, and that problem disappeared.
He found MICROS~1's horribly-crafted updates to be another unnecessary waste of time.
Working in impoverished communities in the difficult-to-reach north of Canada, EULAware and the associated upgrade treadmill were an especially difficult problem.
Again, $0 software that works with old gear was the ticket.
Closed code and restrictive licenses are antithetical to allowing the most ambitious of the kids to go as far as their curiosity takes them, digging into existing code and creating their own.
OTOH, having $0 toolsets that come with the OS or are available gratis with a few clicks is quite handy.
He had his kids doing things that makes the typical "currently being done" thing look totally lame.
He had them assembling their own boxes and installing their own software. [google.com]
The brightest of the bunch became his helpers.
-- gewg_