Chelsea Clinton At NCWIT: More PE, Less Zuckerberg 255
theodp (442580) writes "Among the speakers at last week's National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Summit was Chelsea Clinton, who spoke fondly of the Commodore she received as a kid on Christmas Day in 1987. During the Q&A, Clinton was asked (Vimeo), 'What do you see as some of the right policies that could help put Computer Science — which is undeniably the most important 21st Century skill — into our classrooms?' To which the former First Daughter responded, 'I won't quibble with the fact that I think it's very important. I also think other things admittedly are important.' Such as? Aligning Computer Science with Common Core, for one thing ('Ensure that Computer Science is part of the definition of science'). Using state budget surpluses to hire additional physical education teachers for elementary and middle school students, for another ('For Computer Science, as any subject, kids that are well-fed with healthy food and who have been activated in their bodies will able to learn and retain information in any subject better than if they're not'). And, last but not least, 'continuing to tell stories of people that are not...people who don't look like Mark Zuckerberg as successful in Computer Science and technology.' NCWIT, by the way, was listed as a "major partner" on last December's Hour of Code, which arguably made Mark Zuckerberg the face of Computer Science for K-12 students in the nationwide campaign embraced by President Obama during CSEdWeek."
fondly remembering bullshit (Score:0, Interesting)
she was 7 in '87, she would of been playing with dolls and kindergarten
Re:uhh... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wait... (Score:5, Interesting)
Not sure about the USA, but veterinary graduates in the UK have the highest suicide rate of any discipline. It turns out that most people who go into the subject do so because they like animals, and much of the job of a qualified vey (especially a newly qualified vet) involves killing animals. With that in mind, a career in IT doesn't sound so bad.
Here, by the way, the veterinary school has the most unbalanced gender ratio of any department in the university (more so than computer science), but (as you say) it's female dominated. I suspect that the reason this is seen as of less concern is that our society is increasingly dependent on computers and decreasingly dependent on animals.
I don't believe that an uneven gender ratio is necessarily a bad thing, but I do mind that we're not getting the best students in computer science, and when only around 10% of our applicants are female then it looks like there's a good chance that we're missing some very competent people.
Re:Wait... (Score:3, Interesting)
I have not particular evidence to back up this next assertion, but...
Men and women utilize and consume technology is roughly equal amounts. Not just sitting in front of computers trolling facebook, but also driving cars, accessing medical care, communicating on mobile devices, pay taxes to fund the military-industrial complex, and burning through a whopping amount of energy in the process. So, to the extent that men and women are equal users of technology, I think it prudent to make sure they are equal contributors in technology. Put differently (and along the lines of your final statement) - if women aren't helping to develop new technology, then we're probably missing something important.
Re:Role Models (Score:5, Interesting)
Can we please choose a role model for children in CS who is not ethically challenged?
Zuckerberg may have escaped arrest when he stole passwords to build his hot-or-not website (he should have been arrested), but he was clearly caught red handed.
Combine that with all the dishonesty and contempt for individual privacy he has expressed, and I would feel like a parental failure if my kids turned out like him.
Re:Wait... (Score:3, Interesting)
We're currently steeped in a very, very divisive society
One could go so far as to say that society has already shit the bed, and what we're actually in is a heavily-policed anarchy.