State schools to make computer science a core subject – Boston Herald

Maybe I was just unlucky but every programming teacher I had in high school was utterly incompetent. I scored very low on the AP Computer Science test and almost backed out of my major in college -- the only reason I didn't was because a professor told me I was better off forgetting everything I had learned about programming in high school.

I just don't see how they would be able to hire a significant number of knowledgable instructors at a teacher's wage. I worry that this could do more harm than good by advancing programming's reputation as an arcane art not suitable for mere mortals.

Outstanding, but I fear the curriculum wonks are confused about the nature of computer science. What needs to be taught is problem solving, quantitative thinking, abstraction, algorithms, mathematics, statistics, numerical analysis, game theory, and so forth. Coding (that is, programming) is not part of the core of computer science. Making web pages is not part of the core, nor is communication via social media. Learning how to think rationally is at the core of computer science.

People (students and their elders) seem to have lost the ability to read and understand. The laws of rhetoric are no longer studied; fallacies are embraced everywhere. Many people find it difficult to distinguish between fake news and real news. Evidence is often ignored when making decisions.

Personally, I don't think CS should be a core subject in primary schools. I think it'd be better to have some kind of technology competency subject, to help teach basic use, problem solving, security and privacy practices, and whatnot. A bit of programming and the core concepts of logical thinking and algorithms wouldn't be a bad idea, but I think most students wouldn't actually need to know CS.

If they want to address job demand, I feel it'd be better to increase teacher pay to get better CS teachers, so there'd be a few _good_ CS graduates, rather than many _average_ CS grads.