SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday September 24 2017, @04:32PM
What's even worse is what this Narrative does to women on the ground. It gives them the idea that the skills I demonstrate on a daily basis (my “magic” as it's called—jeebus, it's not magic, it's dedication, practice, education, and experience over decades!) can be learned in a 3 week bootcamp or maybe a month of 1 hour weekly training sessions on the job.
When we get into the nuts and bolts of programming, it turns out that it's much more difficult than the woman wanting to be a “programmer” had thought. This causes endless frustration. It also encourages belief in the Misogynerd Narrative. I've been told to my face on multiple occasions that I'm hiding some secret knowledge and refusing to teach it to women because I must just hate women. These are not healthy attitudes, and they do not help anybody share in a love for programming.
I think the worst part of the Misogynerd Narrative is how self-defeating it is. Feminism seems hell-bound creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that there are no cisfemale programmers. Feminism tells girls not to go into programming careers because all the big bad misogynerds will stare at your boobs and sexually harass you day in day out! So, of course, girls don't take classes in high school that would help, and they don't select majors in college that would give them the foundation for learning the skills I have. Then, they demand that all assigned males, regardless of body parts (in spite of the fucking obvious in my case), make cisfemale programmers precipitate out of the æther, and they demand that all assigned males do it and do it NOW!
Even if they were being helpful and encouraging girls to specialize in maths and technology beginning around 5th grade maybe, it would still take a decade for her to complete her education, become a woman, and enter the workforce! They have no intention of allow time for this to happen, and I think it's because they're having more fun calling the sexuality, character, and sexual performance of all assigned males into question rather than doing something constructive.
(It would be nice if there were another girl to talk shop with. As it is, though, the Misogynerd Narrative and the Guardians of the Caste System have spoken. They say that the only reason I could possibly want to talk shop with another girl is because I want to rape her. They can all go fuck themselves.)