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Comment by kevin_rubyhouse | Hacker News Reader

Coding IS taught is in high school, but is not mandatory. You know this of course, but it's important to note that there is no shortage of opportunities for students to take computer science courses. Some districts will even send students to a nearby school if enough students want to do it but the school doesn't offer it. High school computer science classes were useful, but still at such a slow pace for people that were interested enough to learn at all outside of class. Anybody that was obsessed with programming outside of class probably wouldn't take the class or just snooze through it.

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Yes, programming is taught inside of _some_ high schools. A shockingly low amount of high schools actually teach it though. Neither my high school nor other nearby high schools have any sort of computer science curriculum.

These schools would offer the course if enough of the students are interested. There is no lack of information around us (internet, libraries, sit down at a book store) to learn programming. The issue is the perception of programming in high school - the stigma around it. This might be perpetuated by some of the more eccentric programmers, and these programmers are very good and tend to grow into strong programmers! But they can also repel people that might have been interested, but it conflicts with social status that is so important in high school to the majority of people.

No, this is just false. My high school was run by incompetent people, the result being Photoshop classes being offered to people wanting to program. This is further complicated by people who can't afford their own computers or internet and are explicitly disallowed from programming at the library.

You have a very optimistic view of high schools.

That seems like a really bad scenario, but there are computer science classes and AP/AB CS classes that need to follow a certain curriculum for the Computer Science AP Test by the College Board. I graduated from high school only a year and a half ago in Washington, so I would agree that my perception of schools is skewed towards wealthier districts.

You don't agree that any student should be allowed to program on computers in the library? It seems like a security issue, whereas in a classroom students would be supervised by a computer science instructor. I'm not saying students need to be hand held, but schools really just don't know enough about programming to open it up. Web development, Flash, and Photoshop could be installed on library computers - they were on a few where I went. Otherwise I totally understand why school district IT would not allow it or fight against it.

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