Code.org Changes Mission To 'Make CS and AI a Core Part of K-12 Education' 40
theodp writes: Way back in 2010, Microsoft and Google teamed with nonprofit partners to launch Computing in the Core, an advocacy coalition whose mission was "to strengthen computing education and ensure that it is a core subject for students in the 21st century." In 2013, Computing in the Core was merged into Code.org, a new tech-backed-and-directed nonprofit. And in 2015, Code.org declared 'Mission Accomplished' with the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which elevated computer science to a core academic subject for grades K-12.
Fast forward to June 2025 and Code.org has changed its About page to reflect a new AI mission that's near-and-dear to the hearts of Code.org's tech giant donors and tech leader Board members: "Code.org is a nonprofit working to make computer science (CS) and artificial intelligence (AI) a core part of K-12 education for every student." The mission change comes as tech companies are looking to chop headcount amid the AI boom and just weeks after tech CEOs and leaders launched a new Code.org-orchestrated national campaign to make CS and AI a graduation requirement.
Fast forward to June 2025 and Code.org has changed its About page to reflect a new AI mission that's near-and-dear to the hearts of Code.org's tech giant donors and tech leader Board members: "Code.org is a nonprofit working to make computer science (CS) and artificial intelligence (AI) a core part of K-12 education for every student." The mission change comes as tech companies are looking to chop headcount amid the AI boom and just weeks after tech CEOs and leaders launched a new Code.org-orchestrated national campaign to make CS and AI a graduation requirement.
Nope dot gfys (Score:3, Interesting)
Shut up, you dumb assholes. Don't think we haven't noticed that your new push for teaching humans to write prompts for an LLM to write code is in direct opposition of your earlier push for teaching humans to code. This is like if art class, in the 1980s, had switched from teaching kids how to draw, sculpt, and paint to teaching them to clip pictures of other people's art out of magazines.
They just want slaves.
That was always the case. (Score:2)
Flood the market and no one makes shit. I'm not a programmer, but this was transparently the goal right from the start.
Re:That was always the case. (Score:4, Interesting)
Coding is just a way to teach young kids problem solving skills and basic computer use. Most schools don't even offer a course for AP computer science, let alone a basic programming course of any kind. The job market is not going to be flooded as a result of teaching programming in elementary schools.
Re: (Score:2)
This is like if art class, in the 1980s, had switched from teaching kids how to draw, sculpt, and paint to teaching them to clip pictures of other people's art out of magazines.
Or as artists call this, "Mixed Media."
Re: (Score:2)
They just want slaves.
Yep. So far I did consider it possible these people were jst dumb. It has become clear now that they are evil.
Here's a Thought (Score:5, Insightful)
How about we make reading part of K-12 education? Only 31% of fourth graders are reading at level in the U.S. (source: NAEP) We are 14th in literacy worldwide.
Reading is the foundation of culture, civilization and education. Without literacy, academic education is impossible. Reading first. Everything else second, because there are no other subjects without reading.
Re: (Score:2)
Only 31% of fourth graders are reading at level in the U.S. (source: NAEP) We are 14th in literacy worldwide.
The current generation of kids missed 2 years of education during the Covid lockdown. They'll never fully recover from that.
Re: (Score:3)
Nonsense. That is just a lie by misdirection you are trying here. And failing.
Re: (Score:3)
Have you seen the last election results? Peopel do not want insight, skills, learning and self-improvement. They want it all for free and cheap.
Obviously that wil not work and cannot work. But the moronic masses just try and try and try again, frequently losing it all as a result. History if full of this crap.
ridiculous (Score:1)
K-12 fails at 3Rs, but these fad fanners want kids who can't read to write code. Sham nonsense.
Re: (Score:1)
So what exactly are these three Rs that you feel so strongly about?
Reading, writing, and arithmetic (Score:4, Informative)
Three words whose first consonant sound is /r/ and refer to subjects taught in primary school are reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Call me skeptical (Score:2)
Isn't a lot of the business use case intended to replace the armies of code-monkeys churning out mediocre code for commercial products? Wouldn't promoting AI in this sense be the org pushing to make itself obsolete? The previous story is literally, "Morgan Stanley Says Its AI Tool Processed 9 Million Lines of Legacy Code This Year And Saved 280,000 Developer Hours."
6% unemployment for recent CS grads (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't think any kid alive is dumb enough to go in to CS at this point. Every single text story is about how AI is going to replace them.
With all the automation going on coupled with the inevitable recession that might be permanent this time I don't know what a kid should do. I guess medical since you can't get replaced with an AI as easily there.
I guess it's selfish of me but I really wish civilization had waited until I died to collapse.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm encouraging my kids to go into trades or military. I don't think they'd like programming anyways. It takes a certain kind of brain to enjoy doing it.
Military doesn't pay all that well (Score:3)
As for the trades they depend on the white collar workers to purchase their services. What's more The only way you make money is with your own business. And not
Re: (Score:1)
Trump is not going to invade Canada or Mexico. He's trolling. It's what he does.
I'd be more worried about serving under a democrat. Obama bombed more countries than any president since Roosevelt.
Re: (Score:1)
You sound like Trump. Disdain for those who work and serve instead of just being rich.
Re: (Score:2)
I am a staunch supporter of unions and collective bargaining so you can go take a long walk off a short pier.
I do not understand why people waste what limited time they have on this planet trolling.
Re: (Score:2)
I do not understand why people waste what limited time they have on this planet trolling.
...and yet, you continue to troll here all day every day. Seriously. You are a broken record repeating the same bullshit on every thread, no matter the actual topic of discussion.
Re: (Score:2)
The trades pay badly in general, and the military does too unless you rise to high ranks.
Re: (Score:2)
Electricians and plumbers are looking at a large number of boomers and soon X-res who are retiring. Carpenters are a possibility as well. Machinery always needs fixing so welders and mechanics.
Look for careers with an old average age of the current workers. Agriculture would fit but the cost of getting started, ie, buying the farm, is impossible at current prices. So that's the second criteria, you can get started without incurring extreme debt levels.
Re: (Score:2)
Also the boomers have already retired from that work. You can't do that kind of heavy work once you hit 50 to 55 years old. So the Boomer retirement is already baked in there. The only thing boomers are doing right now is managing a bit of it and maybe telling their employees how to do something.
And that's another major problem with the trades you are basically out of work by the time you're 50 to 55. Sometimes younger if you get a bad injury.
Re: (Score:2)
Apprenticeship programs are paid work unlike college.
Dad was an electrician and worked to age 63. If you insist that the only acceptable work is indoors in air-conditioned space pushing paper or bits around you are limiting yourself.
My work uniform was steel-toed boots, hardhat, safety-glasses, and my choice of fire-resistant clothing or Nomex coveralls. Mostly I was in the office, but I might have to go into the unit at any time so I dressed for it.
Re: (Score:2)
You speak as if 6% were a high number, in respect to unemployment. Until recently, 5% unemployment was considered "full" employment. Sure, 6% is worse than the unemployment rate for seasoned developers (which is under 2%), but a 94% chance of landing a job, is still pretty good odds. If you're a graduate, and you can't beat out the bottom 6% for a tech job, you probably should go into a different line of work.
For a recent college graduate (Score:2)
To put it in perspective it's higher than sociology majors.
That full employment figure includes those recent college graduates and if they start pushing 6% unemployment you can expect that to double the unemployment rate.
College graduates traditionally make the unemployment rate look better than it actually is for everybody who is into college graduate.
Re: (Score:2)
Correction, it's not three times normal, only three times the rate of experienced IT professionals. "Normal" (as defined by the overall inflation rate) is 4.2%. That would make this 6% rate, 50% more than normal, not three times.
Sociology majors seem to have experienced an increase in unemployment since you checked, now at 6.7%. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/1... [cnbc.com]
Regardless of the relative inflation rate, or how one major compares to another, a 94% chance of getting a job is still pretty darn good odds.
Advocacy group ? o.O ? (Score:1)
Who will they try to convince ? The department of education ? It was closed in case you haven't noticed .. Anyways , trying to teach everyone programming is a bad idea. Plus the fact that AI is supposed to replace them all shortly. The whole thing is dumb and just more waste of money but they have plenty to throw around trying to make it look like they care .. Which they really don't
Propaganda, pure and simple (Score:5, Interesting)
This whole "we're all about education" agenda among the brogligarchs - from long before that word came into use - has been dedicated to manipulation and propaganda. People who have any degree of societal control are always looking to get more. Power is a monkey-on-the-back, in the same sense that opiates are, and perhaps to the same degree.
Regular citizens need to get a few things into their heads:
- These people are not your friends, and most of them would sell you out in a heartbeat without a second thought.
- They don't possess special wisdom - hell, a lot of them aren't even terribly knowledgeable. Chance explains much of their success.
- Corruption-by-power is a thing, and even the kindest and gentlest of them have a "divine right of kings" attitude.
- Your kids' futures should be theirs and yours to make. The future of tech is just one factor among many in making those decisions.
In spite of its flaws, I recommend a book called "The Underground History of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto. Among other things, it explores how educational systems which were overtly and explicitly built to benefit the upper classes were adopted in the US with the help and endorsement of the robber barons. Additionally, Gatto was a public school teacher who broke the mould, and some of his teaching experiences make fascinating reading. The book is available at archive.org: https://archive.org/details/Th... [archive.org]
Getting back to Code.org's mission, some additional thoughts:
- The tech landscape is changing so fast that any recommendation made now may be obsolete in two or three years.
- A failure to produce well-rounded critical thinkers who question orthodoxy works in the favour of oligarchs and dictators.
- Familiarity with art, literature, history, psychology, sociology, etc. is necessary to well-rounded critical thought.
- Those "soft" subjects are the first ones to be reduced or eliminated in favour of "flavour of the month" tech subjects.
Keep your eyes on these folks. Don't trust them, and take every opportunity you can find or make to reduce their power over you and your fellow citizens. They'll sell you out in a heartbeat, and many of them ar doing so even as I write this. The tribalism which allows some of you reading this to be cheerleaders for them has you selling out yourselves, as well as your friends, families, and communities, to the empty promises of people who are using you. Do your best not to fall for their propaganda.
god damn it (Score:3, Informative)
We really need to repeal the entire "No Child Left Behind" law, it is largely responsible for the complete disintegration of US schools. It's not as if the kids being "left behind" were failing because teachers just irrationally decided to be mean to them. The problems were much bigger than the schools were responsible for -- lack of childcare, single-parent households, economic insecurity, a lack of motivation for kids to learn, etc. The result of punishing schools for bad academic scores is not that schools will try extra hard to fix these problems. Instead the academic scores have all been gamed into worthlessness, and now, the NCLB law has become a slush fund for stupid projects like making every kid learn how to code. Raspberry Pis are like $20 and software is free now, so much information is available for free as well. Every single kid who has any interest in learning how to program has the ability to. (That's not even getting into whether Common Core was a good idea or not, and all the other ways that NCLB was horrible.)
Republicans always bitch about how democrats don't understand guns and, accordingly, pass stupid laws that make the problem worse. For example, the limits on magazine capacity led to the development of smaller handguns which in turn led to the epidemic of concealed guns -- it used to be you wanted the largest magazine you could carry because if you were in a life or death situation you needed enough rounds to finish the job. But W was equally stupid when it comes to education. Just knee-jerk legislation not thinking about the consequences.
99% of kids are simply not smart enough for Tech. (Score:1)
I get that this is coming from a place where you want to teach kids how to take control of their own destiny but unfortunately that would also mean that the government would have to deal with that so the government isn't going to really support that no matter how much they might say so publicly.
The government etc just doesn't want a bunch of really smart people doing their own thing.
And most kids definitely don't want to get into the math or calculus needed to understand code correctly; The people who actua