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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: 1) by albert on Monday June 15 2015, @12:12AM
Everybody needs the basics for most of that stuff, and a bit more should be available as a mandatory option. ("you must pass any 3 of these 11 classes offered")
For electrical wiring: Everybody ought to learn that circuits exist. Everybody should get a chance to play with wires, batteries, switches, and bulbs. Everybody expecting to go on to college should learn a bit more about electrons in chemistry and physics classes, and a bit more about metals in chemistry classes. There should be an optional shop class in high school that teaches how to wire up a building according to the electrical code, and possibly another class that teaches how to solder on printed circuit boards.
For accounting: Everybody ought to learn basic math. Everybody ought to learn some simple things about money. There should be an optional high school class that covers real accounting, setting students on the path to get certified.
For welding and lathe operation: There is probably little reason to make everybody learn something about these, although related more-basic stuff should be required. Traditionally we call it "shop class". Everybody ought to know how to hammer in a nail. As an option in high school, welding should definitely be available.
For computer science: Everybody should be comfortable with bash scripting. Everybody should learn R, Octave, and Julia. There should be optional high school classes for C, Rust, and at least one type of assembly.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday June 16 2015, @06:06AM
You do realize the discussion was about a full computer science curriculum don't you?
If the discussion was about a one quarter introductory course on word processors and spread sheets it would have been obvious that already happens in junior high.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.