

Lottie Dexter should quit – and take the Year of Code board with her - tommorris
http://adrianshort.org/2014/02/09/lottie-dexter-quit-year-of-code/

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spamizbad
I'm amazed at the pace they think they can get teachers up to speed with
coding. Learning to code in a few months while working full time, and knowing
it well enough to teach others? That doesn't seem like enough time to prepare
the teachers.

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thesimpsons1022
she said you can learn to teach in a few minutes :D

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scotth
I think that was just a slip up. Watch how she acts while answering.

I have leniency for things like that. I'm sure if given the chance she would
have a reasonable explanation.

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svisser
Why? Isn't that the worrying part? She should have the knowledge and
experience to realistically explain why coding matters and how long it takes
to learn it.

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scotth
The interview was fine. She described code as it is. Frankly, it isn't
important whether she knows how to code. It isn't her job. She's an example to
no one.

All that matters is that the program is properly marketed, and that the
teachers are competent.

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pfraze
Mmm, I'm not so sure. She's a spokesperson for code education telling a
journalist that it's easy to code, and she doesn't know how. If she has to
speak for the program like that, she should understand its learning process.

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mverwijs
But coding _is_ easy to learn. It is _not_ rocket science. It is merely
language and syntax to learn the basics. They teach math without expecting
kids to become math-gurus. How is code different?

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logn
I don't think this will do much good. I was forced to take 5 years of Spanish
through school. Hardly know how to speak it now. The people who excel are
usually driven by their own interest. Nothing makes something miserable like a
gov't/school mandate.

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sp332
Making it visible and accessible is important. Otherwise how would people find
out that they really liked Spanish, US Civil War history, or programming?

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vezzy-fnord
It is visible and accessible. Perhaps not if your only interaction is with the
smartphone singularity, but I agree with the OP that programming is largely
self-guided.

Making it a compulsory school subject isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is
distressing as to how well it'll actually be taught, whether good impressions
will be received from it and whether or not it will be deceiving. Schools
aren't known for being apt at actually fostering education (but rather routine
and rote), much less being engaging.

I have a feeling this will be simply an excuse for the education system to
ostensibly appear progressive and forward-thinking, but without actually
providing decent resources. An exercise in flaunting that will likely have no
actual effect on student impressions, especially not if typical public school
teaching methods are employed.

I think that it's better to have no real understanding of coding than no
understanding whatsoever.

That and I honestly think system administration is more important for most
people. Learning to code without learning sysadmin work and how your
environment actually functions is an unfilled gap.

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sp332
There's no reason programming has to be self-guided any more than math or
history. The numbers show that kids have basically no exposure to programming
in school [http://techland.time.com/2012/07/16/can-we-fix-computer-
scie...](http://techland.time.com/2012/07/16/can-we-fix-computer-science-
education-in-america/)

~~~
vezzy-fnord
Yet that hasn't really stopped the tech industry from booming whatsoever.

But like I said: the intentions may be benevolent, however the execution will
likely be mediocre.

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lettergram
"This gobbly goop will help them build websites.."

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edderly
Anyone vaguely technical would cringe at the Lottie Dexter interview, and the
first and easiest reaction is to just bemoan the boneheadedness of government
trying to yet another shallow initiative headed by (apparently) shallow
people.

Then again, it’s worth considering that the there is enough work to do to just
get technical skills on the educational agenda. That requires getting
attention, and it just might be that Dexter might be more relatable than a
domain expert.

BTW, I think a truly ambitious initiative would be built on free software.
With FOSS it's easier to explain how people who know how to code can use those
skills to make changes to things that they use rather than just be consumers
or specialists.

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anigbrowl
The interview is screamingly funny, more so if you're British or otherwise
familiar with Jeremy Paxman.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7x7GYItzS4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7x7GYItzS4)

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adamnemecek
Is the moderator really snickering about the uselessness of programming at the
very end? Does he live in the 1950's?

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tommorris
Yes. Paxman—though he is great at holding politician's feet to the fire—is an
Oxbridge old boy who has very little time for science and tech and is very
much stuck in the old Two Cultures model of science vs. humanities.

In his mind, there are the privately educated, Oxbridge Classics/PPE
(Politics, Philosophy, Economics) crowd who run the world through politics or
business, then there are basically not particularly valuable "geeks" or
"boffins" who do their bidding on technical matters.

He's great at interviewing Prime Ministers and holding their feet to the fire,
but like a lot of journalists, he doesn't really get science and tech stuff.

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jarmitage
I'd be interested to hear from our friends over the pond how this compares to
the Code.org initiative.

It seems to me there are some similarities in the 'boneheadedness' of the
approach. What do people think?

Reminder:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7045202](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7045202)

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youngtaff
From reading various Twitter conversations it seems there are some egos at
play here - read between the lines on some of @thayer's tweets

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auvi
she says "you can pick it up in a day".

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tobych
Ain't it program, not programme, always?

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mverwijs
Isn't it isn't it, not ain't it?

