
Computer Science Is Now a Graduation Requirement in Chicago’s Public Schools - knoxa2511
http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/24/computer-science-is-now-a-high-school-graduation-requirement-in-chicagos-public-school-district/
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Wildgoose
This sounds like a terrible idea for two reasons.

Firstly that in order to maintain an acceptable pass rate the requirement
standards will be dumbed down.

Secondly that this will then diminish genuine qualifications and interest in
the field of Computer Science itself.

We have seen this exact thing happen in the UK, which had an early lead in
software thanks to a vibrant microcomputer scene in the late 1970s and early
1980s.

The government made "I.T." a major part of the school curriculum, taught by
teachers who had little more I.T. skills than any other member of the general
population, and which ended up being all about how to use Word, Excel and
Powerpoint. Nett Result: falling Computer Science Rolls in UK Universities -
basically they succeeded in largely killing kids interests in computers.

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DavidTWco
This couldn't be more correct. I'm a student at a UK University studying
Computing Science and if I didn't learn in my own time and become passionate
about the field then I would never have chosen to study this - secondary
schools introduce students to Computer Science in absolutely the wrong way and
kill off interest from the high achieving students who take other STEM
subjects.

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bpchaps
One of the guys who started this gave a talk at Chicago's OpenGov Hack Night
about a year and a half ago. I honestly don't remember much about it, except
for a huge feeling of "meh". A class on excel would be better than the crap
they showed.

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tenken
Flooding the (tech) market and lowering the average wage of "experts" in the
field in 5+ years.

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godzillabrennus
If anyone thought having high school level tech skills alone made them
insulted from competition they were in for a rude awakening regardless.

