Reading 14 — Computer Science Education

I believe that everyone should be exposed to programming basics at least once. Computers are already almost ubiquitous, and they will only appear in more and more places as time goes on. Everyone needs to have a basic understanding of how they work. One great example of why this is a problem is the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal. When Mark Zuckerberg was on trial, the Senators had no idea what Facebook was or how it worked. I realize that’s an extreme example because they are pretty old, but people need to know, or at least have some understanding of how these systems work underneath the hood so everyone can have intelligent and meaningful conversations about the future of technology. I don’t think you should have to be a computer science major in order to be able to meaningfully participate in any of our ethics discussions.

Some of the arguments in favor of CS4All are the following: to understand our digital world, to learn about processes, to have a lucrative job skill, and to use computers better. Since we are surrounded by them, we should all have at least a basic knowledge about them as it will increase the efficiency of everyone’s lives. One of the arguments against everyone learning to code is that it does not recognize the difficulties of today’s programmer. It also makes it seem like everyone should learn to code and then they will easily get a job, which is simply not the case. The biggest hurdle I see for the CS4All movement is finding teachers that know how to teach programming. As I hinted at before, I think our youth need to have a basic understanding of computer science, something which our older population just does not have right now, so how are they going to teach our youth? Even the new graduates who have a computer science degree are not going to give up a lucrative career as a software engineer to make much less money as a high school teacher, at least not enough to make a significant impact.

I think some sort of computer science/programming course should be taught as a required class in high school. I really like the argument made by this blog post, “We teach Chemistry to students because they live in a world with chemical interactions. We teach Biology because they live in a world full of living things. We teach Physics because they live in a physical world. We should teach Computer Science because they live in a digital world.” I think this is the biggest reason why we should require some sort of knowledge about computer science. I think the main priorities of this curriculum should be computer literacy and logic.

I think everyone can learn to program, but some people will inevitably have a tougher time with it than others. However, that is no different than any other subject. Computer Science is not some magical art that only a chosen few are capable of learning, it’s just a new form of science that scares some people because they are unfamiliar with it. Because of this I think everyone should learn some programming because it will make them better suited for real life in an increasingly digital world.