Where are the kid coders? Not in U.S. schools

[Renew Deal]

If you plan to help your kids with their homework in the future, better start boning up on your programming skills now. (And you thought new math was hard!)

The U.K. Department of Education this week made a radical departure from its current curriculum, announcing plans to begin teaching "rigorous computer science" to all children ages 5 to 14. After studying the current state of instruction, the department concluded that computing in British schools had been "dumbed down" and attempts to teach programming dropped. Children were instead merely being exposed to word processors and spreadsheets, "mostly Word, Excel, and, of course, all running on Windows." They axed the curriculum, saying it was "so harmful, boring, and/or irrelevant it should simply be scrapped."

As the British education minister commented:


Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word and Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations using an MIT tool called Scratch. By 16, they could have an understanding of formal logic previously covered only in university courses and be writing their own apps for smartphones.
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http://www.infoworld.com/t/application-development/where-are-the-kid-coders-not-in-us-schools-222521

[penultimate]

1. I remember learning basic programming and robotics in middle school in the mid 90's.

That was in California and Oregon... In high school, I recall them having some programming classes. I didn't take any of them, but I would go into those classes and show off my skillz (self-taught) to the students in the class. Do most schools not have these classes anymore?

[Starry Messenger]

2. Too bad we only fund testing for Kindergarteners.

Oops, spoke a second too soon. Looks like a member of the Prog. Caucus has his eye on the ball:

http://www.indiawest.com/news/12226-honda-s-bill-allocates-more-funding-to-stem-initiatives.html

Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., introduced a bill in Congress June 28 proposing to allocate additional funding to STEM initiatives, via a mix of public and private partnerships.

The bill, known as the STEM Innovation Networks Act, authorizes the Department of Education to make grants for initiatives aiming to educate elementary school students and teachers in science, math, technology and engineering fields. Department of Education grants would have to be matched – not less than 30 percent – by private contributions.

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Honda – who has served in Congress for 13 years – is being challenged by former Obama administration official Ro Khanna, who has raised more than $2 million in his bid to capture Honda’s congressional District 17 seat. District 17 is comprised of large swaths of the Silicon Valley: Khanna has amassed significant support from business and technology leaders.

Dan Cohen, a spokesman for Honda’s re-election campaign, told India-West that the congressman has received support from 1,100 donors thus far. Significantly, more than half of Honda’s donors made contributions of less than $100, exemplifying Honda’s grassroots appeal, said Cohen.

Honda has garnered the support of 100 local Silicon Valley leaders, including most of the mayors of cities in District 17, and several Santa Clara county supervisors. Honda also has been endorsed by San Jose, Calif. city councilman Ash Kalra and Dublin, Calif., city councilman Abe Gupta, both Indian Americans. Actor George Takei – “Star Trek” legendary Lt. Hikaru Sulu – has donated $1,500 to Honda’s campaign, according to quarter two FEC reports filed by Honda July 13.