From Scratch to Skills: Why CS Education Still Matters

I love teaching. Love it. Of all the content I ever taught, there was something about teaching Computer Science that was truly special. I remember the moment photographed here - it was one of those special “a-ha” moments. We were working on designing a block game, and after over a week of debugging, my students had a breakthrough. They had struggled for hours, kept failing, but ultimately, they persevered. The joy was palpable, and it was special. 

Teaching Computer Science, that was special. Why? Because students were so deeply and authentically excited. They were the creators and the makers, the developers of their own resources. They were the problem solvers and the debuggers. They were invested in becoming critical thinkers and solvers - which ultimately is what great CS education (or great education of any subject area) is all about. 

Today’s episode of The Daily, “Big Tech Told Kids to Code - The Jobs Didn’t Follow” brought me back to my  8th grade classroom. I was one of the first teachers in Tennessee to teach a new curriculum, where students used block languages like Scratch and design languages like HTML and CSS to build games, websites, and learn to create and explore. 

There are many things that the journalists at the New York Times got right. Tech does have an outsized impact on schools. From the introduction of Chromebooks to learning apps, tech has insinuated itself into decisions about what and how kids learn. When one industry has such a significant impact on a core component of our social and formative experience, we should take notice, and we should consider the motivations and role.

The designers of these experiences and courses have always prioritized the transferable skills over the discrete knowledge tied to any one of these learning experiences. During my time as Director of Computer Science Education at RePublic, we built and launched a K-12 Computer Science program used by schools across the state. Largely because of our efforts at one school, the State of Tennessee experienced a 147% increase in African American and Hispanic students completing the AP Computer Science Principles course. What is true of the College Board’s design of that course, both in the design of the content and the assessment, is that it introduces students to the breadth of the field of Computer Science - and focuses not on one discrete coding language, but on the computational thinking that is necessary for success in any tech-related industry. 

The Daily points to the lack of coding jobs for my 8th graders -- now recent college graduates -- and asks whether we overinvested in coding and overpromised our students. As one of those coding teachers, I would say no, I don’t think so. The purpose of schooling is not to be at the beck and call of industry, it’s to teach a fundamental set of transferable skills. And at its core, that’s what excellent Computer Science education is: investing students in a way of thinking. 

If we as an education sector constantly chase after the next most important set of skills, we will always be 10 years behind. Fifteen years ago, it was Computer Science. Today, it’s Generative AI. Sure, an Hour of AI has a place in this work, but that in and of itself will replicate the mistakes we’ve made in the past. What does matter as we think about what comes next? It’s best to look not at the industries that are fastest growing (9 out of 10 of these are, as you would expect, in tech). Instead, pay attention to the skills prioritized across industry. Analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility, agility -- that is what employers most want, and that’s unlikely to change any time soon.

It’s true.  Big tech told my students to code and now it’s not hiring them.  But, it doesn’t follow that they didn’t develop the skills and qualities that will allow them to adapt and succeed.  If there is one thing I’ve learned from teaching, it’s that kids will always surprise you -- with their resilience, craftiness, curiosity, creativity, and empathy -- qualities that we worked on in 8th grade Computer Science on Gallatin Avenue in East Nashville.

An "A-Ha" moment from my 8th grade CS classroom