Breaking the code
February 26, 2014
Do you want to create the next Flappy Bird, build your own website, or find some of the best paying jobs on the market right now? Well, coding is your answer. As society speeds ahead with new technological advancements, people without the essential knowledge of computer coding are falling behind. Computer programming is the source of almost every piece of technology we interact with, which is why it is imperative that students are exposed to it at a young age.
To introduce coding to students, Code.org, a non-profit organization, started a nationwide campaign called “Hour of Code” early last December. Surprisingly, Diamond Bar High School did not participate in it. By not acknowledging the importance of computer science education, the upcoming generation of students will already be a step behind in the real world.
Funded by Microsoft, LinkedIn and Google, the campaign was supported by Obama and featured free tutorials from Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. For a week, schools from all over the nation designated an hour to introduce computer programming and encouraged students to learn the valued skill on their own time at home.
For some schools, an hour just wasn’t enough. Soon after the campaign began, New York City partnered with Code.org to hire 120 computer science teachers, and the Chicago mayor made computer science a core high school requirement and offered computer courses for students in kindergarten through the eighth grade. Some states such as Kentucky and New Mexico took a longer stride and even allowed students to learn HTML, JavaScript, or other types of computer programming as a foreign language class.
It is unfortunate that DBHS, despite its high emphasis on academic excellence and college preparation, did not participate in this campaign and missed the golden opportunity that was available to them with just a click of the mouse. Because DBHS has not yet taken the time and effort to advocate computer science education for all students, it isn’t fully equipping students for a successful future. An adequate education, as emphasized by the new Common Core Standards, should help students have an easy transition from high school to college, and then to the workplace. If more jobs are requiring employees to know computer programming, DBHS should likewise push students to learn coding and other programming skills.
Although tutorials that teach coding are widely accessible on the web, only a handful of students will pursue it on their own time. Therefore, it is crucial that DBHS take the first step in introducing these skills to students and allowing them a taste of the programming world. Even a brief introduction can be enough to help many realize that coding is essential and is not difficult to learn. In this day and age, schools cannot afford to shy away from technology, rather, must quickly grab the opportunity to expose their students to the modern world.