Is Computer Science Education Racist and Sexist? 612
theodp writes "What's wrong with this picture?" asked Code.org at its launch earlier this year, lamenting the lack of Computer Science students in a race and gender reference-free infographic. But as the organization has grown via public/private partnerships and inked agreements to drive the CS curriculum for the Chicago and NYC school systems, the same stats webpage has adopted a new gender and racial equity focus, positioning Computer Science education as "a chance to level the playing field" for women, Hispanic and African American students. The new message is consistent with the recently-forged Code.org partnership with the NSF-funded Exploring Computer Science (ECS, "a K-12/university partnership committed to democratizing computer science") and Computer Science Principles (CSP, "a new course under development that seeks to broaden participation in computing and computer science"). According to The Research Behind ECS, an "insidious 'virtual segregation' that maintains inequality" is to blame for keeping the number of African Americans and Latino/as CS students disproportionately low. So, what might the future of Code.org's proposed equity-based U.S. K-12 CS education look like? "Including culturally relevant instructional materials represented a driving focus of our course development," explained ECS Team members who now advise Code.org. "Cultural design tools encourage students to artistically express computing design concepts from Latino/a, African American, or Native American history as well as cultural activities in dance, skateboarding, graffiti art, and more. These types of lessons are important for students to build personal relationships with computer science concepts and applications – an important process for discovering the relevance of computer science for their own life." And — ironically for Code.org — it could mean less coding."
Re:Question asked. Answer NO. (Score:5, Funny)
In computer related fields nobody cares how hot you are.
possibly the wrongest thing I've ever read on Slashdot! :-)
Re: IQ (Score:5, Funny)
You don't need an above average IQ for CS, you just need to think you have one.
Equal opportunities for kids of English descent (Score:3, Funny)
Children of English or British ancestry are handicapped by their cultural heritage, so they deserve extra stimuli and attention in education.
Their language is fraught with an enormous vocabularity, which impediments their efforts to become literate. To make things worse, the spelling is arcane, non-intuitive, and non-phonetic, and then American, British, Canadian, etc. English have different spellings.
Their ascent in the scientific and computing subjects is further jeopardised by a labyrinthine system of ancient units of measurement, which drives even the smart to seek a career in the humanities.
Re:sexist? pah! (Score:5, Funny)
Unix guide - unzip ; strip ; touch ; finger ; mount ; fsck ; more ; yes ; umount ; sleep
That is all.
Re:Culturally Relevant == Irrelevant to CS (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe we need to lower the standards so that everyone can get a fair chance to participate.
Re:Is Computer Science Education Racist and Sexist (Score:5, Funny)
Betteridge's Law of Headlines.
Re:The mote in god's eye. (Score:5, Funny)
all men are potential rapists/pedophiles.
Potential? I'll show 'em!
Wait, that came out wrong.
Re:Is Computer Science Education Racist and Sexist (Score:5, Funny)
Is Computer Science Education Racist and Sexist?
Well, no. Unless there are roaming gangs of white nerdy kids beating up anyone with the wrong color that I haven't heard of.
Yesterday a roving gang of white nerdy kids pummeled me for a half hour. I think I broke a nail.
Re: Question asked. Answer NO. (Score:4, Funny)
We guys however, were unrecognized gems. 18 charisma, EVERY ONE.
Re:No. (Score:5, Funny)
My dad tried with my sister.
When she was 16 she could change an alternator herself, admittedly only to prove her little brother wrong.
Then she learned how to stand on tip toes and then drop her heals to the ground, causing her boobs to bounce...it was over in six months. Learned helplessness.
BTW once you notice the, tip toes, drop heals to make boobs bounce thing, you see it everywhere. Anybody got any alternative explanations for this body language? It's always related to a girl wanting to get her way.
Re: IQ (Score:4, Funny)
As a manager in IT, I used to go out of my way to hire attractive women in CS, but they are just super rare. They hardly exist, and the smart ones are very expensive.
I've seen the job ads:
WANTED: COMPUTER PROGRAMMER
Job spec:
(Goodbye karma)
Re:How does advanced CS have any tie to culture? (Score:5, Funny)
Weird Al basically covered the entire gamut of this culture in his parody White and Nerdy. The fact that he explicitly linked being "white" with "nerdy" leads me to believe that nerd culture in the US is viewed under the such racial spectrum at least in part.
That's a pretty solid citation. But you should know that Weird Al has also determined that girls just wanna have lunch and as a result are insufficiently motivated to study CS.
Re:in no way is CS sexist or racist. (Score:4, Funny)
Show me one example where coding is sexist or racist. When I say an example, show me syntax, I program in C, C++, PHP, ASM, PERL, PYHTON, BASH, SH, a variety of web languages and other desktop languages. I have yet to see syntax which is racist or sexist.
Just a few off the top of my head...