106. The third reason they don’t teach computer science in public school
[From Seth Godin, Stop Stealing Dreams http://www.squidoo.com/stop-stealing-dreams]
The first reason is classic: it’s a new topic, and changing the curriculum is political, expensive, and time-consuming. The bias is to leave it alone.
The second reason is related. Many teachers are more comfortable teaching areas in which they have significant experience and expertise, and computer programming doesn’t really line up for them in those areas.
But the third reason is the most important one, and gets to the heart of the argument: Just about all the important things we need to teach in computer science can’t be taught by rote memorization, lectures, and tests. And school is organized around all three.
Computer programming is directed problem solving. If you solve the problem for the student by saying, “here, we use this line of code, and here we use this one,” you will have done nothing at all to develop the deep thinking and arrangement skills that programmers use every day.
Instead, the process involves selling the student on the mission, providing access to resources, and then holding her responsible for an outcome that works. And repeat. And repeat.
Other topics that are just like computer programming
Fine art
Selling
Presenting ideas
Creative writing
Product development
Law
Product management
Leadership
I don’t think it’s an accident that there are few traditional schools that teach these topics (in a moment, an aside about law schools).
These fields used to be left to the desire and persistence of the individual. If you wanted to excel in any of these areas, you were left to your own devices. You might, like Shepard Fairey, end up at Rhode Island School of Design, but more commonly, you either found a mentor or figured it out as you went.
Tags: stopstealingdreams
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