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The rationale for this rapid curricular renovation is economic. Teaching kids how to code will help them land good jobs, the argument goes. In an era of flat and falling incomes, programming provides a new path to the middle class – a skill so widely demanded that anyone who acquires it can command a livable, even lucrative, wage.
This narrative pervades policymaking at every level, from school boards to the government. Yet it rests on a fundamentally flawed premise. Contrary to public perception, the economy doesn't actually need that many more programmers. As a result, teaching millions of kids to code won't make them all middle-class. Rather, it will proletarianize the profession by flooding the market and forcing wages down – and that's precisely the point.
(Score: 5, Informative) by pvanhoof on Sunday September 24 2017, @03:09PM
> The onus of offering a better hypothesis is on you
No. That's simply not how it works. How it works is that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Another must not assume any claims to be true, and the onus of offerint a better hypothesis is not on whoever should assume something to be true. The guy making extraordinary claims must provide extraordinary evidence. And that's it.