My Idiosyncratic View Of The World
Jeff Wise has a piece in this week's NY Magazine about teaching kids to code which features my partner Albert's home school and great programs like Code.org and Girls Who Code. It also talks about the work my colleagues and I are doing to bring CS education to all of NYC's public schools.
Jeff ends the piece with this observation:
Like much tech-world philanthropy, the tech schools are arriving as a fiat from on high, rather than welling up from grassroots demand, and it’s easy to read the education evangelism as motivated, at least in part, by a desire to mainstream techies’ own idiosyncratic way of looking at the world.
Pardon me, but that accusation stings. "A fiat from on high?" "A desire to mainstream our idiosyncracies?"
No good deeed goes unpunished. I know that. But this critique seems so out of left field.
My idiosyncratic view of the world is a place where we all understand how to control the machines that are increasingly controlling our world. It is a place where kids who are headed to flipping hamburgers for a living get an option to do something a bit more stimulating. It is a place where we all have the tools to make things that make our lives better.
Now that I've got that out of my system, I will go do some yoga.
Comments (Archived):
As the famous saying goes, all great (but new) ideas are ridiculed at the beginning, and go through stages before they are finally accepted.
Fred, time for a response in kind:if (user == “jeff wise”){ alert(“You don’t know how to turn this off, do you Jeff?”);}
Nice Logic
ha. as JLM would say, “well played”
Literally. Correction : would have been “literally ” if you had been responding to Andy.
Ha! That’s great.
Awesome
Understand your concern. Actually, the beginning of the piece made it sound like programming tutors don’t have a clue what they’re doing and are only after seed money from the student’s parents.A better OpEd would be toward the major piece of education missing in schools across the US. As a society, we can wait for some miracle or make a difference. Those that make a difference need to ignore those that write sub level opinions.
“New York Magazine covers, analyzes, comments on, and defines the news, culture, entertainment, lifestyle, fashion, and personalities that drive New York City.”you’ve been defined, from on high, by Jeff from his publishing pulpit. was this the Sunday Sinners edition?
Whether connected or not, regarding journalists, it’s like Bezos announcing on 60 Minutes his goal of doing drone deliveries in the future, however many years down the road.The media went bonkers like he said it was happening next month. The coverage only shows how truly behind the stick our society is.
That was a spectacular PR stunt. He was poking FedEx, UPS & others right in the eye. Somewhere at these 2 companies, someone ordered a bunch of drones yesterday and opened a drone lab.
Your right I bet.
Someone had to program the drone (and build/engineer it too). Why not our kids here in the U.S., rather than people from other countries?
Yes!
Oh so true
“A beautiful narration of this article will soon be available”i vote to invite Jeff to narrate his beautiful response.
This is Fred’s blog, so I understand that most of the comments will rip the article and the writer, but it does seem to me that this Everybody Should Learn to Code thing is the new New Math.
Meh, I don’t see it as new math. It’s an avenue. Coding has always been the domain of geeks. If coding is taught correctly, it becomes the domain of everyone. New Math was a fiat from on high forcing everyone to learn its idiosyncracies.
Can you elaborate? It is my blog but it is your comments thread. And I like getting contrary views here
The New Math: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…
New math was a terrible situation.Also, hi, welcome – why do you think New Math is Code
Not really. Closer would be that since computersare important, everyone should understand Turingmachines, the halting problem, the importance ofP versus NP, and graph theory.Teaching children to code is no closer to being a new New Math than teaching them to make pancakes, put on tire chains, change an airfilter, make pizza, sew on a button, or otherpractical tasks. Heck, the teaching willremain a long way from Knuth’s TACP,the Gleason bound, big O notation, etc.The New Math was trying to be a farm clubfor relatively abstract parts of advanced math, especially set theory and algebra,but not boundary value problems, computationalfluid dynamics, Fourier theory, measure theory,point set topology, functional analysis, ordinary differential equations, differentialgeometry, stochastic processes, and more.That Kolmogorov in Russia was involvedwas interesting but not a biggie. K-6 teachersand kids in Russia were going to encounterthe same problems as those in the US –need to start with the practical and tangible,walk before run, and leave the abstract andaxiomatic approaches to another pass later.Learn the real numbers as just points on theline and leave Dedekind cuts for later. Forthe completeness property of the real numbers,few students would think to doubt it! For thecommutative, associative, and distributivelaws, just assert that they do work; that theydon’t all work in group theory, matrix theory,and Banach algebras is irrelevant in grades1-6. For the ordered pair, (a,b), don’t trya set theory definition {{a}.{a.b}} tryingto tweak Whitehead, Russell, ‘PrincipiaMathematica’ back to Cantor or axiomaticset theory.Heck a major fraction of the founders ofdigital computing, e.g., von Neumann,Kemeny, were good or great mathematiciansand didn’t concentrate on computability,computational complexity, or Turing machines.Or “Things should be as simple as possiblebut not simpler.”.
“If you want to defend your problems, go ahead. You’ll keep them for the rest of your life.” as my wise friend says.
Great line. Love it.
RISD Photog, who went to trucking school to travel US and snap drivers, which leads to my 2nd fave quote from him ” You only go too fast down a hill once.”
I don’t know, I can see the guys point. Carnegie gave us libraries that you could read anything and go you own way. Maybe this is too defined for him and besides you need to makes some waves as a journalist.
Actually, I was hoping that you’d post something about Amazon Air today. Drones have been an area of interest for you, if I remember correctly. Hopefully tomorrow. 🙂
Ok
I was hoping that you’d post something about Amazon Air today. Drones have been an area of interest for you, if I remember correctly. Hopefully, you’ll post about it tomorrow. 🙂
Unfortunately, Fred, we don’t all understand how to control the machines.Not even the brains behind the black box “Big Data” trading algorithms.If we did, the global financial crisis would not have been so deep and long.
That’s incorrect. The financial crisis had nothing to do with black boxes.
not completely – there were a number of black boxes that helped create synthetics. I’m friendly with a guy who made one of them….
Black boxes were not anywhere near the root cause or continuing cause of the financial crisis. The cause was the incentives placed in the market by the federal government, backstopping them with Fannie and Freddie. Banks took the incentives, ignored the risk and ran with it building up huge houses of cards on false liquidity. Other industries used the cues from the false liquidity to build capacity. When the jig was up, the cards fell. Black boxes were just used for transactions.
where did he work? If at Bear Stearns or UBS I might know him.
The Economist has a 101 on the causes of the financial crisis:* http://www.economist.com/ne…These 3 reasons are often cited:(1.) US government lowering the interest rates;(2.) Central banks setting lax capital ratios; and(3.) Imbalances between credit-debt provisions in US, Europe and China.Where does that data get fed into to enable transactions, profit and risk management modeling in the banks?Into…………The black boxes.(Disclosure: my team invested in all the major institutional trading platforms used by the Tier 1 banks).
The Economist has a 101 on the causes of the financial crisis:* http://www.economist.com/news/…These 3 reasons are often cited:(1.) US government lowering the interest rates;(2.) Central banks setting lax capital ratios; and(3.) Imbalances between credit-debt provisions in US, Europe and China.Where does that data get fed into to enable transactions, profit and risk management modeling in the banks?Into…………The black boxes which run and then unravelling the chain of how the original interest rates, capital ratios, credit-debt figures and a gazillion other data points becomes more and more complex and….Not easy to control.(Disclosure: my team invested in all the major institutional trading platforms used by the Tier 1 banks).
My friends developed black box trading, and I was on the CME board when we went electronic. Believe me when I tell you, I understand electronic trading isn’t perfect. I can cite a lot of problems with the way trade takes place today in capital markets. But, black boxes had no effect on the financial crisis. We would have had a crisis with or without them. Was the decline in March of 2009 steeper than it would have been-I am not sure. I was on the floor in October of 1987 when we didn’t have black boxes and we had a pretty rough day.I don’t mind contrary opinions, but conspiracy theories and falsehoods should be dispelled.
When I use the term “black boxes” I don’t mean Black-Scholes specifically for derivatives and complex CDOs. I mean quant-based trading systems in which the data is super-speed but not necessarily super-smart.Black box being indicative of the fact that we really don’t know every data item (the reliable, the out-of-series and the anomalies) that goes into them. We can’t see inside the box.The theoretical assumption has always been that we can control the algorithms and program them to “clean” the data (whether M&A transactional, modeling or High Frequency Trading).There is as–yet no such thing as perfectly clean data because we cannot program the algorithms to absolutely detect every
When I use the term “black boxes” I don’t mean Black-Scholes specifically for derivatives and complex CDOs. I mean quant-based trading systems in which the data is super-speed but not necessarily super-smart.Black box being indicative of the fact that we really don’t know every data item (whether it’s the reliable, the out-of-series and the anomalies) that goes into them.We can’t see inside the box.The theoretical assumption has always been that we can control the algorithms and program them to “clean” the data (whether M&A transactional, modeling or High Frequency Trading).There is as-yet no such thing as perfectly clean data because we cannot control or program the algorithms to absolutely verify each of the gazillion data points and contextualize them relative to each other.By contextualize, I don’t mean calculating the risk correlations.At best what happens is the algorithms take “representative samples” from the dataset and projects, probabilistically, that the rest of the data set is clean, reliable, time-relevant.Traders then make their own judgements on whether or not to buy/sell based on those probabilistically-based model assumptions from the algorithm.Are the algorithms fully under the control of the traders or the control of the developers of such algorithms?I stand by my comment: we don’t all understand how to control the machines.
Also, I am as anti-conspiracy theories and falsehoods as the next person.My observation is that Fred’s initiatives to encourage diverse groups to get involved in code is a good thing because they might end up bringing fresh perspective and innovation to how we can control the machines better and make them smarter since………Diversity = more intelligence and productivity.Fred’s comment of “where we all understand how to control the machines that are increasingly controlling our world” is not where we are at (yet).
Worth reading Professor Roberto Rigobon of MIT Sloan’s (One Billion Prices Project) comments about trading systems and Big Data here:* http://www.nytimes.com/2012…
completely incorrect.
ridiculous
Which part is ridiculous?(1.) The opinion we don’t all understand how to control the machines?Fred’s mission seems to be to make tech knowhow more accessible.(2.) The assertion that not even the brains who design the black box “Big Data” trading algorithms know or can control the machines?Google the LTCM example and also read Professor Roberto Rigobon of MIT Sloan’s views (One billion prices project) on how hedge funds the world over failed:* http://www.nytimes.com/2012…
Which part is ridiculous?(1.) The opinion that we don’t all understand how to control the machines?Fred’s mission seems to be to make tech knowhow much more accessible to everyone so that the kids who are “headed to flipping hamburgers” have more intelligent and hopeful options for their lives.That’s something I believe in too.Nevertheless, the reality is that the machines and systems are mostly designed and programmed by dropouts and graduates with comparatively privileged backgrounds.We don’t ALL understand how to control the machines. People with this skill do:* Comp Sci / technical degree* Programming skillsbecause they can get the machines to function in the way they architect them.(2.) The assertion that even the brains behind the black box “Big Data” trading algorithms don’t know how to or can’t control the machines?Please google LTCM as an example and also read Professor Roberto Rigobon of MIT Sloan’s comments about how hedge funds all over the world failed:* http://www.nytimes.com/2012…(3.) The argument that if we did all know how to control the machines better that we might have been able to get out of the global financial crisis sooner?Think about it…….If we all understood how to control the machines………….Why did no one step in to set the gearing ratios of the CDOs within a safe limit and why was systematic contagion allowed to happen?I stand by what I wrote: we do not all understand how to control the machines.
Not sure why Disqus didn’t post this (it seems to be in my comments log, though) so here it is again…Which part is ridiculous?(1.) The opinion that we don’t all understand how to control the machines?Fred’s mission seems to be to make tech knowhow much more accessible to everyone so that the kids who are “headed to flipping hamburgers” have more intelligent and hopeful options for their lives.That’s something I believe in too.Nevertheless, the reality is that the machines and systems are mostly designed and programmed by dropouts and graduates with comparatively privileged backgrounds.We don’t ALL understand how to control the machines. People with this skill do:* Comp Sci / technical degree* Programming skillsbecause they can get the machines to function in the way they architect them.(2.) The assertion that even the brains behind the black box “Big Data” trading algorithms don’t know how to or can’t control the machines?Please google LTCM as an example and also read Professor Roberto Rigobon of MIT Sloan’s comments about how hedge funds all over the world failed:* http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12…(3.) The argument that if we did all know how to control the machines better that we might have been able to get out of the global financial crisis sooner?Think about it…….If we all understood how to control the machines………….Why did no one step in to set the gearing ratios of the CDOs within a safe limit and why was systematic contagion allowed to happen?I stand by what I wrote: we do not all understand how to control the machines.
Which part is ridiculous?(1.) The opinion that we don’t all understand how to control the machines?Fred’s mission seems to be to make tech knowhow much more accessible to everyone so that the kids who are “headed to flipping hamburgers” have more intelligent and hopeful options for their lives.That’s something I believe in too.Nevertheless, the reality is that the machines and systems are mostly designed and programmed by dropouts and graduates with comparatively privileged backgrounds.We don’t ALL understand how to control the machines. People with this skill do:* Comp Sci / technical degree* Programming skillsbecause they can get the machines to function in the way they architect them.(2.) The assertion that even the brains behind the black box “Big Data” trading algorithms don’t know how to or can’t control the machines?Please google LTCM as an example and also read Professor Roberto Rigobon of MIT Sloan’s comments about how hedge funds all over the world failed:* http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12…(3.) The argument that if we did all know how to control the machines better that we might have been able to get out of the global financial crisis sooner?If we do all understand how to control the machines………….Why did no one step in to set the gearing ratios of the CDOs within a safe limit and why was systematic contagion allowed to happen?I stand by what I wrote: we do not all understand how to control the machines.
Touche
Whether it is “top down” or “grassroots up”, ALL change which democratizes and diversifies systems to improve people’s lives is good.Maybe the more the machines are subject to learning from and being codified by a more representative spread of the global population………The more intelligent the machines can be.At the moment, their intelligence is narrow: functional, logical, rational, probabilistic.Data and code lacks culture, gender and as Om Malik might call it…..SOUL intelligence:* http://gigaom.com/2013/03/2…So if that culture, gender and “soul” intelligence in data and coding comes from one of the kids on a Code.org or Coding for Girls…….Global society will be a better place with smarter systems.
Whether it is “top down” or “grassroots up”, ALL change which democratizes and diversifies systems to improve people’s lives is good.Maybe the more the machines are subject to learning from and being codified by a more representative spread of the global population………The more intelligent the machines can be.At the moment, their intelligence is narrow: functional, logical, rational, probabilistic.Data and code lacks culture, gender and as Om Malik might call it…..SOUL intelligence:* http://gigaom.com/2013/03/26/w…So if that culture, gender and “soul” intelligence in data and coding comes from one of the kids on a Code.org or Coding for Girls…….Global society will be a better place with smarter systems.
What do journalists even understand in this day and age?The fourth estate is bankrupt. See so much parroting and terrible logic. Last night on the news in Chicago they cited a study on energy drinks that had a sample size of 18 people. Wouldn’t someone in the newsroom say, “Gee maybe we shouldn’t report that even though its sensationalistic and grab attention because in a larger sample the stats might not be accurate.”?Even the Chicago Tribune is telling Illinois State Legislators to vote for phantom pension reform today, just to get anything done. Even though the long term effects of the “reform” will bankrupt the state since the numbers are all based on flimsy math.
the tech industry is becoming the fourth estate.
Most success is the result of being able to take advantage of the low hanging fruit of opportunity. So back when ad revenues were robust and there was no competition it was easy to build a machine which did all the right things. (In other words what you are saying is not happening). Reminds me of the utility company trucks before competition. Boy were they perfect (I notice things like that). Like there was “a guy” that had a job making sure the trucks were in absolute perfect condition and customers paid for all of that perfect maintenance. Money allows you to design and operate the perfect system.But now cut back on ad revenues and it become nearly impossible. It’s really just math. And it makes sense. [1]That is why I laugh at all of these companies that are flush with money that think they are doing all these great things for their employees. When the money gets tight see how many free meal and ping pong tables and “make your own schedule” and 20% time and free time exists. The best part is how they think they are different and won’t end up in the same place over time.Anyway I watch the Nightly News and have of course seen the same thing that you are referring to. They will bring up a story and many times not even have an expert to counter the points to the story. And they will use things like you are mentioning as filler on a slow news day. It’s “in the can” and “evergreen” type material. Some of the time they do tack on a “to be sure” qualifier to cya.[1] Except when you are a state government and can’t unring the bells of the things you put in place when you had more money.
Meanwhile, “American 15-year olds lag mainly in math on international test”http://www.nytimes.com/2013…
I think we fan leverage coding to help teach Math. There is a great program called Bootstrap that teaches algebra and coding together
In high school, majoring in math couldn’t have been farther from my son’s mind. Now that he is majoring in computer science, he is considering a math minor.
I think that’s a very good idea.
hrm? what program is that
This shouldn’t be a surprise, since the country that has sent us more immigrants than any other has lousy PISA scores. The best coaching in the world can’t overcome a weak draft.
You’re saying it’s genetic?
“All research suggests that the child’s IQ is linked closely to the […] parents’ and IQ […] has the strongest link to academic outcomes.” That quote is from this post by Education Realist, which is worth reading: http://educationrealist.wor…(Incidentally, if someone from Disqus is reading this, I posted the link above via a desktop PC. When I tried doing the same via iOS, Disqus didn’t let me post a link in my reply).
From what I can see, PISA does not measure IQ. Performance on knowledge tests does not reflect IQ.
PISA measures academic performance; academic performance is linked to IQ. Which is why it’s no surprise that countries with high average IQs (e.g., South Korea) score well on PISA.
Honestly, this attitude strikes me as a modern day equivalent of phrenology.Here’s a study on IQ tests being B.S.http://www.thestar.com/life…If IQ scores were an indicator of genetic intelligence, they wouldn’t be plastic, which they are. IQ scores can be improved, they fluctuate depending upon the subject’s age, and can be impacted by environment.
Education Realist anticipated exactly this sort of response:If you are genuinely wondering what to believe, don’t cherrypick. Read a summary of generally accepted understanding (Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns). Definitely take any claims of making young children smarter with a big dollop of skepticism, since fadeout is a nearly universal downer when looking back at early childhood studies. And if you ever see a mention of the Flynn Effect, go ask James Flynn himself
Oh dear. I’ve been anticipated by Education Realist.
Also need to question IQ itself,e.g., it’s definition, measurement,relevance, etc.
You know, this was said about the Italians and the Jews when they came to the US, circa 1880, which was around the time IQ tests were invented. The problem disappeared after 3 generations
Was that claim a myth perpetrated by the blank slatist Stephen Jay Gould?: http://ethnicgenome.wordpre…If so, it wouldn’t have been the only time Gould either got the facts wrong or deliberately lied about this subject: http://althouse.blogspot.co…
if someone from Disqus is reading thisDisqus should not only have someone who reads things like this but logs and acknowledges such possible bugs. By actually replying and saying “ok so noted”.
Nature and nurture — super tough to separate.
That statistic can get headlines, but it doesn’t mean much.15? Okay. Then was in the 10th grade, andthat was plane geometry, one of my all timefavorite subjects. I was so interested in thesubject I refused to permit the teacher orclass to have anything to do with my learning,refused to admit doing homework, and sleptin class. But I worked every non-trivial problemin the book. I was in good shape to take on99 44/100% of 15 years olds in the world in that subject. My only time at class participationI nailed the teacher to the wall.The rest of the world is welcome to try tomatch my SAT Math and GRE Math scores.Lots of luck guys; you’ll need it.Guys, as you are struggling with freshmancalculus, remember that I never took it,just read a book, started with sophomorecalculus, and did fine, e.g., honors in math.And in 1-12 and college, I was a poor student, mostly didn’t even try at academics, and just did what I liked. E.g., I didn’t even knowwhat the heck the SAT was and did nothingfor ‘preparation’.This story is fairly standard for the US: The bestin the US are right up there sharing the top slotswith the best in the world. Gates in his work ineducation did point out that the top 10% in theUS are terrific, or some such. I’m sure he’s right.The bottom 10% in the US is a problem, but,bluntly, that was the deliberate intention. Nowwe are reaping what we sowed. I mean, didwe expect something else?For the best of the rest of the world, I’ve metthem in international, peer-reviewed journalsof original research and did just fine, thankyou. If the rest of the world is beating the USin math, then let’s see it in the Fields Medals,Abel Prize, journal articles, etc. I’m waiting.I’ve been waiting. I’m still waiting.I have a nice collection of books on advancedmath. They are mostly from the US withsome from Russia and a few from France;here the US blows away the rest of the worldlike the NBA blows away some junior highteam.Why? Here’s one reason: At the beginningof the movie about Nash is a statement that”math won the war” (WWII), and that’s a bitsimplistic but not really wrong. It is widelyenough recognized in the US that math is one of the most important pillars of USnational security, e.g., fast Fourier transform,shift register sequences, error correctingcodes, computational fluid dynamics,optimization.So, as usual, if there is a serious situationof a pillar of US national security fallingbehind, then Congress just adds money,and history has shown that that’s quitesufficient. What happens on averagefor 15 year olds is next to irrelevant.
Another take – “With PISA results being released today, you are going to hear a lot about how stupid American 15-year-olds are…” But adjusted by race, American teens do pretty well: http://www.isteve.blogspot….Asian Americans outperform Japan, and score almost as high as South Korea; White Americans outperform Austria; Hispanic Americans outperform Greece; and African Americans outperform Malaysia, Mexico and other countries.
US is #36 worldwide http://io9.com/how-does-you…
the tempo of the article was actually pretty measured up until the end there where he simply derails. The fiat from on high bit is really just out there. NYC is going through some major changes and not everyone is excited about them. most people fear change.
I know. It came out of left field
I’m of two minds about this: the first is telling me “where is that groundswell of popular demand?”, the second is telling me that he’s somewhat right, that we are imposing our view of how the world should be by shaping the minds of the young. I get concerned when other interests do that and so have to think carefully when my own world view is the one being imposed.I think the first question is really one of confidence. When I first begin talking with somebody about programming computers, or they ask what I do, the convey to me the belief that they could never do that, that it would be too difficult for them to understand. I try to communicate the simplicity and the elegance of computers and also the urgency of exactly what Fred said, that this is a skill that is crucial to being part of what makes our world and not just a passive bystander following someone elses program.Much like the conversation some of us had in NYC might suggest I really had two influences, two exposures that drive me desire to build useful things for people. One is a vision of the future born of fiction but possessing truth, a positive view of where mankind can go if reason, scientific thought, logic, and honor and courage are our drivers. The other was the simplicity and control of sitting down at my C64 and commanding it to do what I wanted. I loved the immediate feedback, I knew immediately if what I entered was wrong.As I watched computers evolve, first early Windows which was barely usable, then the internet which possessed so much promise but really wasn’t giving us all what we wanted. I watched people getting frustrated, and got frustrated myself when computers didn’t work, or where needlessly complicated, or made things too difficult for human beings. Even if I knew the reasoning behind it, the technical limitations, I still felt responsible, as if my fellow techies had failed mankind in some way.I see the same thing even today, where the media calls the current generation digital natives or millennials, I see them as a generation almost as lost and confused by technology, innately interacting with it but no more than somebody watching TV, consuming Facebook and Snapchat and Kik. I miss the command line that greeted me on the C64, requiring me to instruct it to load a game, that placed the power of BASIC within reach, while the devices of today hide all of their magic behind little icons requiring nothing more than the pressing on the picture to make it go.So what is the solution? The programs Fred mentioned are a good start, but they are more like vocational school for programming, teaching enough to build some app or some game or get a job. We are talking about education, we have students who walk into the school as young children full of ambition, intelligence, curiosity and energy. By the time they walk out as young adults we have drained all of that from them, and the consolation we offer is a class in programming? We teach math and reading, some science, some art, shouldn’t we teach the skills required to thrive in our current society not as an afterthought but as an element of the core curriculum? I think the UK is starting to get this right, with programs that start with younger grades and introduce the concepts of programming, then build up to application development for those that are interested in pursuing it.(Composed in Google Docs which has offline saving of drafts.)
I think its about choice and offering kids good options
Of course I agree, but the first step is letting them know the options exist. Ideally we would do this when they are young enough to care.
“shouldn’t we teach the skills required to thrive in our current society not as an afterthought but as an element of the core curriculum??”No because we don’t care about the long term.The answer is Americans talk a great game about K-12 education. In reality, they put thier money into things like $50-$60M football stadiums , $200K salaries for head football coaches etcWhile their math teachers work with me on Friday night at Target so they scrap by the rest of the week.
You are right on, I think. My two boys are 15 and 13 years old, have benefited from a very good school system, and have had technology around them since they were born. My older son is a passive user – obviously comfortable with technology, but he watches videos, plays games, etc. and has shown no interest in the underlying technology. My younger son is different – he has taken online coding courses and gone to game development summer camps. He will work in science/technology/engineering some day. You can just tell.Both boys would have benefited from an early introduction to programming, but I am under no illusion that had this happened my older son would all of a sudden enrolled in a codecademy course and set his sights on a career programming.To paraphrase from the movie ‘Ratatouille’ – “not everyone can become a great coder, but a great coder can come from anywhere” – and that’s why I think that early introduction to programming is important. For some kids, it will light a fire inside them. For the rest, they will learn some valuable lessons even if they never program again.
The night before, I had played the first conference game of my college career. We were on the road, against a better team who literally never lost at home. We came up short.The headline read “Swan airballs tying free throw, Knights fall by one.” Half of the article was about that free throw with 6 seconds left. My failure.Coach met me in the locker room before practice. He was holding the article.”Andy, do you know why he wrote this?””Ya…. it was the biggest play, and I missed it bad.””No…that’s not why he wrote about it.”He continued… “Do you know why he didn’t write about how you kept your man, their 2nd best player from even seeing the ball all night?….Do you know why he didn’t write about the way you sacrificed your body for 19 of the toughest rebounds this league has ever seen?….Do you know why he didn’t write about the intense, painful recovery on your shooting shoulder after that surgery 3.5 weeks ago?Do you know why he didn’t write about the fact you’re in here early and late every single day? Since you were 12 years old?Do you know why he didn’t write about all of those things you did that put YOU on the floor in that game, YOU on the line with a chance to tie it, US in a position to beat a team we haven’t beaten in 8 years?Do you know why he didn’t write about what it took to get there?(I smirk but don’t respond)”Because he doesn’t have a FUCKING CLUE what it takes to get there, that’s why.”He tossed the article face up in the urinal.It was a great day to be at practice.
Epic comment. ^10
I’m all pumped up now
like i am going to start doing pushups pumped up
Rockin’ pep talk, dude!
Great coach. You were lucky to play for him.
That Arctic Monkeys video is dedicated to this post, also.
What an amazing coach, Andy. I wish I would have had one of those.
Good coach
“Because he doesn’t have a FUCKING CLUE what it takes to get there, that’s why.”Otoh anytime I see anyone on AVC (hey, just yesterday actually) complaining about how the team they are following sucks I never hear “but that’s ok that they are losing I know they are putting in effort”.Sports is a game that is about winning. That is the story of interest to the public. Writing a story that gets papers sold is the job of the writer and editor. It’s not about being fair to you. It’s about selling advertising. As a player that is the life you have chosen.
I agree. To be clear, my comment wasn’t to suggest that he should have written about my efforts rather than the result. I do not believe that at all.They write, they cheer, they complain. Not one bit of it matters to us, the ones that DO.
For sure. And in fact you didn’t really editorialize what he said with any real slant that I could tell anyway. You merely reported something that happened. And let others feast on it.So I was really responding to what others said in response to your story and how they were just dripping with attaboys that I felt were a bit over the top given the realities.Not knowing sports I kinda guess that coaches are a blend of “you suck” as well as encouragement at the appropriate time. Because the player always wants to please daddy. And if daddy is always nice there isn’t the contrast needed to put in the effort required to get approval. Just my guess I could be wrong.
I kinda guess that coaches are a blend of “you suck” as well as encouragement at the appropriate time.I think you may be right, LE. My daughter complains that her cross-country (and track) coach is never satisfied no matter how well she does. As the only girl with three brothers, she is a bit of a daddy’s girl. She also used to be a whiner, but thanks to this coach, not so much anymore.He drives the team hard. It was phenomenal that this very small team made it to the state championship race this year in our huge state. His coaching got them there as much — if not more — than their talent.They didn’t place in the top 3, nor did we expect them to. But what really got my attention is that after the race, where they placed 15 out of about 30 teams, the girls and the coach were standing around laughing. This hard-driving coach knew when to show them another side of his coaching ability. They left that race determined to be on the platform next year.
LE – I think the you suck types are on the way out, if not gone.There are so many tools available for young athletes to improve – technical coaching, video, incremental . progressive teaching of complicated skills (big in tennis, baseball, golf that I have seen) – that coaches now are more analysts (physical & emotional).Andy’s story rocks b/c those types of guys were rare back in the day.
Yes. To your post, I thought aboutresponding with comments about themedia that they generate smelly baitfor the ad hook and that with the Internetwe are on the way to something better,but I thought as you did, much as inyour last sentence here and didn’tpost.
awesome. great coaching
“In truth, it seems that entrepreneurs exist only in retrospect. In the early days they are labeled crackpots, dreamers, and unhireables. Only later do they earn the title — and the respect.”Jeffrey P. SudikoffFounder, Chairman & CEO IDB Communications Group
Of course you played basketball. :)Great story. Knowing you just a tiny bit, I have a feeling this experience shaped you well beyond athletics.
Love that story..
Keep on DOing! It’s all that really matters…and coach others along the way as you climb.
+1 for the “coach along the way”
There are always some critics for the best move of your life … ignore and move forward.
My dad used to say the world’s most dangerous people are stupid people with good intentions.
That may be because the most dangerousknowledge is not the good knowledge youdon’t know yet but the bad knowledge youdo know and act on.
“goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind” — John Phillips 1781
19 rebounds and an airballed free throw….Dennis Rodman had quite an NBA career w/ those identical stats…..and now he’s an international ambassador! Brighter days are surely ahead!
Great coaching – FTW! 🙂
That’s coaching there son.
Brilliant, Coach. Brilliant
That right there is suitable for framing. Wish I could give that a thousand up-votes.
if it makes you feel better my 8 yr old son proudly proclaims he will be an “IT guy”Does anybody have suggestions on sites to teach 8 year olds to code?
Our portfolio company codecademy.com
I’m not sure you can really get mad at the man for simply telling the truth. Especially since the truth really isn’t all that bad. Fiats from on high can be inspiring.One of my biggest gripes is that I never knew what professions were available to me when I was in grade school, high school, or even college — and I went to fancy prep schools and a top 10 university! No one told me that I could design the computer I was typing on, or the desks at which we sat, or get into the restaurant business in a way that would be more profitable than flipping burgers.Had, say, the founder of IKEA sashayed into my high school on his high horse, talking about how he got to sit around and design furniture and be cool all day — and make a boat load of money doing it — I’d probably be in a different place. But had he come in and downplayed what he did with misplaced modesty, I probably wouldn’t have been inspired and no good would have come of it.There’s nothing wrong with arriving from a fiat on high. And though you might not like the wording or connotation, it *is* what you’re doing, Fred. It’s probably better to own it and use it to its advantage, rather than covering it up with modesty and preventing your efforts from maximizing their potential.
It’s not how I see itBut maybe that irrelevant to everyone but me
I think your modesty gets in the way, sometimes. 🙂
I am who I am. Not gonna change that
One of my biggest gripes is that I never knew what professions were available to me when I was in grade school, high school, or even college — and I went to fancy prep schools and a top 10 university! No one told me that I could design the computer I was typing on, or the desks at which we sat, or get into the restaurant business in a way that would be more profitable than flipping burgers.Same here.But I put that “blame” [1] (if you want to call it that) on my parents, family and neighborhood not on anything in the education system. I went to a quaker school and if I had listened to them I’d be off in Africa right now or something like that.Wasn’t raised to believe or surrounded by anyone other than business people, doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants and maybe a few engineers. Oh yeah also pharmacists (my neighbor, my uncle and many others).Outside of that nothing really existed.[1] When I put “blame” in quotes I don’t even mean blame. I mean how can you expect parents (and the people around you) to open your eyes to anything other than what they know? Especially noting that with the exception of law most of the things that were decent careers “back then” are still decent today.
bingo – and most parents don’t know what to recommend to their kids to do for a living
But they do know from observation in the world what things they have seen others do that appear to be good career choices.For example my daughter is a “communications” major at a college in upstate NY. I tried to dissuade her from doing that knowing the competition and how hard it is to get a job in that area. Ditto for someone who “wants to be on TV” or “in the movies” or “a rock star”.Parents may not know all the things that someone can do but from experience they do know the things that are, in general, pie in the sky and should be avoided.Of course there is also the issue of the hot career today is not the hot career 15 or 20 years from now.One thing about being in business is that you can use those skills to do another business should what you are doing no longer be in vogue. As opposed to a very specialized career like “meteorologist for the national weather service”.
My step constantly tells me I should be an air traffic controller or dentist. Because he knows people in those fields that have done well for themselves. But there are of course many other professions that can and do work out well for people.
That’s one of the larger reasons for arelatively general education. Also themore ‘abstract’ stuff tends to have widerand longer lasting applicability.And that’s one of the reasonsnot to take teaching coding too seriously –it’s too close to ‘trade school’ and, thus,not general enough to be a good foundationfor all the career choices later in life.E.g., my father wanted a career teachingin trade schools. Alas too soon in hiscareer, what he knew about the tradeswas no longer hot enough to teach youngpeople.Of course, teaching coding, chess, sports,etc. might get some kids confident enoughin their abilities to pursue more productivesubjects, but that looks quite indirect. Ifwant to learn subject A, then study subjectA or at least its prerequisites and not subjectB from some vague connections with subjectA.
Parents and families are rarely perfect and, while that’s not “okay” per se, education can and should pick up some of the slack. At least I think it should. And it definitely did for me. I just expect more, I suppose, especially considering the price tag my education came with. There’s no excuse for anyone to go to a school where they’re getting what folks would call the most premium education in the country and come out not knowing what jobs are available to you. That’s nuts.Not that its right for public, quaker, or any other kinds of schools either. Education in this country is… it just leaves a lot to be desired. It’s the chance every kid has to make a positive leap forward and away from a less than perfect upbringing. And I don’t mean just poor kids having a shot; even rich kids with wall street parents should be able to go to school and learn how to do something with design or technology or cooking or whatever.
Well I don’t think anyone who has gone to a private school like I have (or you have) can complain.I was surrounded by people who were eithera) from rich families (at graduation one kids’ father landed a helicopter on the school lawn).b) from highly educated familiesc) minorities who may have been a or b but if not got to attend because of some outlier ability.d) children of diplomats or actors etc. They all send their kids to boarding school.e) middle class families who felt education was important enough to make the sacrifice.f) kids who were smart enough to see the value of going to a private school and got their parents to go along with it.I was “e” and “f”.So that environment was totally different from the local public school which was basically either “smart kids” or “losers” where you felt as if you were under siege every day. (And this was in a good part of the city I can’t even imagine what it was like in lower class parts.) We had tablecloths in the lunchroom. And kids held the door open for you. It was really strange at first.So the environment and who you were surrounded with and how they acted and how they cared about learning (and behaved) was really key to the experience. The education was good as well.This was my english teacher who gave me a really bad grade on my first paper and ripped it to shreds :http://www.swarthmore.edu/a…She wasn’t a public school lifer going for tenure phoning it in she was someone who cared about education and was just passing through to better things. Another teacher I had was the son of the US Secretary of Transportation. They were all paid less than public school teachers. Almost all lived on campus.And of course in a private school if you don’t tow the line you get kicked out. So they have a nice stick. Not to mention that your parents would kick your ass as well. Back then no excuses get your shit together.
Had, say, the founder of IKEA sashayed into my high school on his high horseThis might be hard for younger people to believe but way back my quaker school brought in, get this, “lesbians”. I never forget the day we had a visit from a woman who introduced herself by saying “Hi I’m Carol and I’m a lesbian”. In retrospect it’s funny. Like some kind of show and tell.
Ha! That’s awesome. I went to a Catholic prep school that was vocal about supporting its openly gay teachers right in the middle of the all the pedophile priest scandals that were plaguing Boston and Chicago (where I’m from). It was the epitome of liberal.
I was an English major who discovered programming in college (using an early word-processing language, Waterloo Script, that ran on the college mainframe). Part of the problem then was that programming was grouped with “engineering” — super-demanding, long lab hours, difficult tests. The liberal arts just sound easier, when you’re a high school student or college freshman or sophomore. And engineering curricula are studded with things like “problem sets” — just as the social sciences have “physics envy,” computer science and engineering seem to have “math envy.”It doesn’t need to be this way. Computer programming is, in large part, just rigorous thinking applied to a particular domain. I think it could be taught as a form of logic — a way of reasoning with internal consistency. Described like that, programming could be an entryway into any discipline, as well as a life skill that will always be useful in itself.Wise’s comment at the end about philanthropy that comes from “on high” is especially off point since, in this case, the move to make programming education more accessible is almost entirely grass roots. Look at the Ruby Newby guys — not a money-showering tech billionaire in sight, just some people seeing a need that should be billed.
That was a weird zinger, in an otherwise positive article that made the case for the need to fill the technical gaps that are out there. And what better way than to start earlier in life when kids are in their teens and pre-teen years?He is confusing a fiat with leadership.
Almost everything that is happening in K-12 school right now is arriving as fiat from on high rather than welling up from grassroots demand. If he has a problem with it then that’s an entirely different and very long article he could write.I also think that these large initiatives like tech schools are greatly helping to build grassroots demand for CS in other schools and after-school programs across the country.
Julia Wilson in the comments!!She’s my niece, she is getting a masters in Ed at Columbia and she works at a leading tech company in NYC.I’d call that an educated opinionThanks for stopping by and sharing it Julia
Well said.
He seems to be viewing such initiatives as if they were a country-club siblings tennis academy or such-like; for all its failings, the world of tech is at least pretty easily accessible to one and all and such initiatives are great at offering some semblance of structure to kids interested in tech and how they can develop their skills, if they have a desire to learn more about this niche – even if it just becomes an additional life-skill – not necessarily everyone has to become an entrepreneur/startup or fodder for tech companies in the years to come.
Hi Julia!What do you think parents want? Let’s throw in the fact that a number of parents are also sick of testing – where does computers fit into education grassroots
Hi Shana. Teachers are doing a lot of really cool things on a smaller level in their individual classrooms- like project based learning and standards based grading just to name a few. There have been teachers offering computer science classes to students for years. This is what I think of when I think of grassroots change in education, and technology and computers are vital to all of this change. But the media likes to hype up “revolutionary” changes that of course never live up to the hype, instead of these small scale things that are actually making a difference.I’m not sure what parents want. I assume they just want their kids to succeed. If their kids are learning about computers and computer science then it can only help, not hinder, their chances of success.
As I’m now designing games which can be used in ed, as well as at home, I am frankly appalled at how I hear this play out. We have made some things so unnecessarily hard for those in need, and some things ridiculously easy for those who need no advantages.So much is lost in the middle while the above plays out. It really sucks. I’m glad to hear your perspective.
It seems like education is quite the battlefield these days. I have read other articles including this one by Jathan Sadowski (http://www.wired.com/opinio… in WIRED yesterday. His cynical view boils down to “we can’t teach them to read, how are we supposed to teach them to code?”I do not agree. Programs like the ones Fred is sponsoring are additive. People can learn to read and code. People can learn to read and then do other things that are not coding. Even if there is not grassroots demand the people that want to code, or people who do not know about coding and then learn and enjoy it will be thankful.Also here is some grassroots demand: http://www.thecrimson.com/a…
Great point. So so many different facets to the discussion on Education, and so much work to be done to figure out how to do this right, with balance, and at scale. I started an online discussion group called The #EducationPapers that I moderated, and the discussion just blew me away. If inspiring people to have these discussions, look around the think about policy and standards and any aspect of education at all is “fiat from on high,” so be it.
Here here. I don’t see private funding for tech education as arriving from on high, if anything these are grassroots by definition. Unfortunately public education has a monopoly that is consistently failing our students. New data came out this week on where the US ranks in education amongst OECD and the results are appalling. Longer term I’d love to see the public education monopoly collapse to competition, but in the meantime the shortest path to improvement is clearly to influence the public education machine to better focus on math and science, and that means coding
Jeff’s remarks have “bitter legacy journalist who is loosing more and more of his influence and pay” written all over it.Grassroots demand ? From students ? These are kids, Jeff.Idiosyncratic views ? This is code language. Google it and you will see where it is used.
That quote from Jeff Wise reminds me a bit of this piece on philanthropy in Africa by Paul Theroux: http://on.barrons.com/IF73dr Theroux offers some similar complaints, though his are informed by decades of experience in the matter.
Got to love any article that manages to work in ‘eleemosynary’! I think he’s a bit harsh on the Gates foundation in particular. But the quote reminded me more of a recent piece in the New Yorker by George Packer: http://www.newyorker.com/re…which is probably the most cogent articulation of the increasingly mainstream view that the tech community is essentially condescending and self-serving in its thinking and actions around social issues (so not unlike the commentary on western aid in your Theroux piece). I think Packer is off-base in important ways, but this is how non-geeks are seeing things. The tech community needs to engage with that perception rather than get annoyed by it.
Teaching – A great idea whose time can come !To the Naysayers:“Never surrender your hopes and dreams to the fateful limitations others have placed on their own lives. The vision of your true destiny does not reside within the blinkered outlook of the naysayers and the doom prophets. Judge not by their words, but accept advice based on the evidence of actual results. Do not be surprised should you find a complete absence of anything mystical or miraculous in the manifested reality of those who are so eager to advise you. Friends and family who suffer the lack of abundance, joy, love, fulfillment and prosperity in their own lives really have no business imposing their self-limiting beliefs on your reality experience.” ― Anthon St. MaartenHe may be a nutty psychic – but he has a way with words
I think a quote from a very wise man is in order:’First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win’Mahatma GandhiKeep doing what you are doing Fred, I feel it is so important and giving people choices to learn about how to control the machines that are weaving themselves into the fabric of our lives gives them power to change their destiny. I started programming computers when I was 7 years old, and now it feeds my family. This is such a powerful gift you are giving. Don’t let them get you down.
Gandhi was overrated: http://www.thecrimson.com/a…
For anyone not following that link….* The movie, which portrays Gandhi as utterly chaste, seems to have left out scenes from real life of the Indian leader’s young female followers fighting amongst each other for the honor of sleeping naked with Gandhi and cuddling him in their arms. This was his way of testing his vow of abstinence in preparation for coming struggles which required moral fortitude. Nor is mention made of the daily enemas Gandhi gave the young girls, or the enemas and nude massages they gave him each day.
He was paying for his “transparency” … I made that comment 2-days ago when there was a talk about ‘transparency’ here at AVC … and someone said “such an odd comment” …
I sometimes feel that he was a spy from South Africa!!! 🙂
This is good work you are doing Fred.Public school education just ain’t great, is always behind the times, but it’s what most get, including myself. I was super fortunate that my father was a teacher and learning was part of home life. Most are not.Just keep doing this. Screw the naysayers. The kids will thank you.
“a fiat from on high,”….”mainstream techies’ own idiosyncratic way of looking at the world.”Out of context, yes, these words could be a tad insulting, although I found the overall column to be very positive.New York magazine has a paid circ of 400K+ and weekly readership of 1.6M….I’m sure many were favorably enlightened by this article.It’s not like he said, “your baby is beautiful, but WTF is up with that big black mole.”At least I didn’t interpret it that way.
My dad taught high school auto mechanics. He always thought it was a crying shame that it wasn’t a required course. After all, just about every single one of us operates a vehicle. Imagine a country of people who all drive a car but don’t know how to fix it.He never made me come out to the garage and learn his craft. I wish he had.
Have you read Shop Class as Soulcraft?I loved it, a PhD- motorcycle mechanic making a case for the work we do with our hands…
Never heard of it. It’s going on my Xmas list 🙂 Thanks for that! It’s true for me that doing work with my hands is a must every week.
Plus, of course, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
This is one of those books that’s perennially on my list…thanks for the reminder!
Another for the list!
http://carl-rahn-griffith.t…:-)
Nice one!
As some recent research confirms, right fromthe crib, girls are interested in people andboys, in things. So in the crib, a girl is getting to be a master at communicatingwith facial expressions and tone of voiceand eliciting support from her parents,especially her father. By age 4 she hashim wrapped around her little finger, andshe knows it and he doesn’t. She knowsvery well that she has arranged that hecan never say “No” to her, and he has yet to figure this out.Meanwhile back in the crib, a boy is thinkingabout how to hack the latch, get out of thecrib, and write C++ code to automate thefiretruck on the floor — only a slightexaggeration.Girls, you can totally, effortlessly blow awayall the boys in eliciting support and get yourfather to give up his time, energy, money,and even health for you.But for competing with boys in how thingswork, you have a very steep hill to climb.E.g., before I got interested in girls, oneof the most exciting days in my life waswhen I got to look inside the oil pan ofa V-8 engine or inside the a differential.Big days. In each case, the image wasburned into my brain and has never left.E.g., when the old car my brother and Ishared had loose front end parts,with no real training at all, I found amaintenance manual, took a few notes,and, then, in the driveway with some bumper jacks and concrete blocks,dangerously, raised the front end, tookout everything back to the steering wheel,cleaned up all the parts, got a list ofthe new parts I needed, had my localChevy dealer get the parts for me,put everything back together, drove off,had the front end aligned, and drove thecar for years. Right: I did that with noproper means of handling the compressedsprings — dangerous. Good success.No training.That women can do well sewing shows thatthey can do such things, too. Alas, boysare aimed at doing such things from thecrib — literally. E.g., my parents used totell me how young I was when I took apartmy first door knob.There are two miracles of nature, (1)girls and facial expressions to elicitsupport and (2) boys and understandingthings. For more, girls remain mastersof using emotions, and commonly boysare masters at ignoring them.Boys and girls just ain’t the same. Sorry ’bout that.
“To do more for the world than the world does for you. That is success.””Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.””If I had asked people what they wanted they would have said ‘faster horses’.”Henry FordFollow your heart Fred and do lots of yoga.
thanks Dayna
Altruism is so rare nowadays that very few people recognise it, sadly.
Same with leadership.
+10 for the do lots of yoga!
Anyone else pause at this part?“It’ll be like Chatroulette, but connected to Facebook.” Katie describes her concept for an online environment in which strangers can randomly meet and either just chat or interact educationally as student and teacher.Is Katie pulling a Parker? #airplay
Oh, Fred. Indeed.
literacy re technology is already as important as reading and writingnot everyone knows that yetthe future is already here; it’s just unevenly distributedrelated: if the future turns out to be drones instead of flying cars, that’s not a bad thing
leaders lead
Seems to me, he’s not in the arena… http://www.theodore-rooseve…
Whether or not intended the writer is describing what a movement looks like. And what it means to lead. I recall that you don’t think of yourself as a leader. But you are part of a movement and you happen to be one of the people leading. Thank you.
Right on.
Jerry would quote Buddha here and say the best things are the ones where the people feel they did it themselves – it’s leadership which operates within others.Go Fred!
… ’cause everybody’s got their boxDoing what they’re toldYou pushed my faith near being lostBut we’ll stick to the gunsDon’t care if it’s marketing suicidalWon’t crack or compromiseYour do-rights or individesWill never unhinge us!In the words of our very own Alex: Bring on the backlash!http://www.youtube.com/watc…
at least he didnt call you a one percenter.
That’s so 2012… 😉
I’m not offended by that at all. Look how screwed up the world is. Maybe what it needs is a little idiosyncratic thinking by the tech and business community.Besides, they used to call us nerds until they all wanted to be us.
AVC has been a great place for me to embrace my inner nerd.
> Look how screwed up the world isIt’s just as good as it can be consideringhow screwed up the people in it are! Indeed,once learn more about the people, wonderwhy the world is as good as it is!
Has anyone heard of GiveDirectly?With technology, maybe this isn’t the problem that needs to be solved among young kids (particularly poor kids).I’m actually what would happen if we gave directly rather than saying “coding is the answer”
Gave directly to who?
in their case, africa. They basically just give cashhttp://www.npr.org/blogs/mo…My point is, if we just gave the parents money for computing/kids – what would they do with it? For all we know, maybe the problem is they need a good computer at home? Maybe faster internet service?Beats me, but I’m sure the kids and parents have some answers that we don’t know about
Feedback & understanding the ground level is crucial. I’m not convinced giving them cash would help though….they’d likely spend it on something else that solves a short term pain point. But I could be wrong 🙂
Here is the comment I just submitted (yet to be moderated/published) to NY Mag:—————————————————————-I reject your claim that “the tech schools are arriving as a fiat from on high, rather than welling up from grassroots demand”.I serve on the Brooklyn Community Board 6 Youth, Human Services, and Education committee. (I am also a public school parent, and was recently elected to CEC 13.) Last spring, in recognition of the very grassroots demand we’re hearing from both principals and parents in Brooklyn for more computer science/coding, we started a project on CB6 to connect schools with programs such as Code.org, Girls Who Code, ScriptEd, CodeNOW, CoderDojo, NFTE, and TEALS. We met with local superintendents of District 13 and 15, who also expressed the strong desire to increase CS education.Since this CB6 effort started, my name has been shared with other schools and districts in Brooklyn outside CB6. My e-mail box is filled with Brooklyn principals, schools, and parents from Canarsie to DUMBO who want coding in schools programs.After we got the CB6 effort going, I became aware of the “$5 million fund” – The NYC Foundation For Computer Science Education (“CSNYC”). I had met Fred from other work and had a chance in the late summer to talk with him and Evan Korth, the Executive Director of CSNYC, about our CB6 effort. Precisely because CSNYC is NOT about being from “on high” they asked that I keep them in the loop, and I have been sharing interested schools (and parents) with CSNYC since.While your claim that CSNYC is a “fiat from on high” might fit some convenient narrative, it is baseless. Fred, Evan, and the others behind CSNYC are doing this precisely because there are “grassroots” voices asking for more CS in schools.Your implication is that parents, teachers, and administrators are not keenly aware of the need to teach more CS in schools. That is false and also insulting. They get it, they see it. Hence the demand that Fred and others are seeking to address through philanthropic means. That people like Fred and Evan care enough about our city’s kids to make this happen should be celebrated not denigrated.To quote Wendell Berry from this week’s Bill Moyer’s program: “Leadership consists of people who simply see something that needs to be done and they start doing it – seeing something that needs to be done and starting to do it without the government’s permission or official advice or expert advice or applying for grants. They just start doing it!”
Do you have information on poorer districts (eg: parts of williamsburg where chassidim live)
As said in my NY Mag comment, the effort I started is in CB6, which is Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, Columbia Street Distrct, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Gowanus, and Park Slope. That discrete initiative (along with whatever I can do on CEC13 for D13) is my personal focus for my volunteer time re getting CS in more schools.As part of the CB6 initiative we met with the superintendents of District 15 (overlaps much of CB6) and District 13 (overlaps a small portion). Because their districts cover more than just CB6, and especially since they engaged their corresponding high school superintendents (who themselves cover multiple districts, e.g., Karen Watts), my name got out there and hence why I’m getting requests from all over Brooklyn, despite the initial effort being more geographically focused.Because of the grassroots demand we are seeing, I created this Google Form, https://docs.google.com/for…, to collect responses and normalize. It would be a shame to hear about interested schools (or parents) and not engage with them. I share the responses with both CSNYC and the various programs.As CSNYC and the programs themselves continue to ramp up in NYC, I’m sure a more systematic approach to all of this will happen. The intent of the CB6 project is matchmaking of schools to programs, and I think there is a match making effort between programs and schools — volunteers, teachers and funding too — that is not unlike some of the stuff done during, say, the early days of NYTechResponds. That’ll happen given the caliber and commitment of the many people working on this. Fred, Evan, etc. are lighting a spark to grassroots demand I see first hand.So, yes, would love to hear about other areas of NYC where folks are interested, though I’ll probably just pass that demand on to CSNYC and the programs themselves as I individually can’t “match make” for all of Brooklyn, let alone all of NYC (nor should I).Feel feel to e-mail me at runderwood5 (at) gmail.com with more questions!
worry not fred – no one is flipping burgers anymore….. a machine is doing thathttp://momentummachines.com…
I think you should take “idiosyncratic view of the world” as a compliment. Better to be idiosyncratic than predictable or conventional.
“tax preparation and autism”? wow. a bunch of us in NYC are volunteering through TEALs to teach kids, my school is in a relatively poor area of NC (where I am from). we are hardly from “on high”.The only reason there isn’t more grassroots demand is lack of awareness. There is tremendous grassroots demand in other countries where folks are more aware of what a fantastic way to make a living it can be.
I am also a TEALS volunteer, among my other hats. It is very fulfilling. Thank you Paul for stepping up and serving the community. Concrete, direct action to make things better and help people is a great thing.As I said in other comments, I think the grassroots demand is out there. Parents, teachers, and principals get that kids need to learn more CS and coding. The author of the NY Mag article is just creating a narrative and fitting events to his views.
I love when you get worked up, Buster.
yessssss
primal instincts rising fast. a session with Jerry recommended 🙂
Given today is #GivingTuesday, a way we could all show our continued support of what Fred is doing is by doing a contribution (or another contribution, as case may be) to the CSNYC venture fund. http://www.crowdrise.com/CS…
this is what old school media does. why give it the oxygen of publicity? the publication gets a traffic blip boost it probably doesn’t merit, and we have to waste a valuable avc slot commenting on something that creates nothing of value for society – nothing.
All that said…its important to call out flippant perspectives now and then
with Fred’s track record of achievement i don’t get why he thinks Jeff Wise is worthy of a response. time is valuable. don’t waste it.
The ending of the article is simply ridiculous and illogical writing as it points out earlier that there was “1,400 students applied for the 108 ninth-grade spots” – obviously grass roots demand
Last paragraph doesn’t say there is not grass roots demand.It says:rather than welling up from grassroots demand…which to me means it didn’t happen “well up” from demand but once created there was demand (1400 students for 108 spots).
But it (“1,400 students applied for the 108 ninth-grade spots”) could certainly be construed, I think correctly, as evidence of previously unfulfilled demand, right?Being around schools a lot, I hear the demand all the time. If I say at a school “I work in tech” and then a parent says “Oh, really? We really want do a CS program at PS …”, which is the chicken and which is the egg? Is this the quantum theory observer effect, or is just that a conversation caused someone to identify demand that had existed all along?
could certainly be construed, I think correctly, as evidence of previously unfulfilled demand, right?Absolutely.But I don’t think the end of the article (that it arrived by fiat) contradicts the earlier part showing demand.Because I don’t think that Fred did this because he was solving some demand problem that he saw but rather he was furthering interests that he saw were important to him or his interests or made him feel good (I could be wrong but that’s my take).Not that it matters anyway.
Fair enough. And it doesn’t matter in particular because fulfilling a need and doing something that makes one feel good are not mutually exclusive. Being helpful, giving oneself, has the effect of making one feel really great!
Pardon me, but that accusation stings. “A fiat from on high?” “A desire to mainstream our idiosyncracies?”This is obviously a sensitive subject. Reminds me of the criticism I get from my father about “ulterior” motives for things. As if having an ulterior motive somehow detracts from anything you do which is good. Obviously people always have ulterior motives it’s all a matter of degree. [1]I didn’t read that quote the way you did at all. My brain said “Fred does this because it makes him feel good and it’s good for business”. Along with searching for higher meaning and purpose now having fulfilled business dreams having made plenty of money.In any case if things like this matter to you (what the press and writers say) that’s a reason you need to suck up better!. [2] Keep your enemies close type of thing. It’s much harder for them to write bad shit if you act more cooperative than if you don’t. You won’t eliminate the negativism (and you very well might not want to play that game) but it would help if things like this bother you.[1] Bloomberg was criticized for continuing to golf when that train crash occurred. Ran a big picture of him on the links. As if it’s a surprise that he did that and isn’t running for reelection. As if it’s a surprise that someone running for election would have done things differently. Maybe maybe not. You never know and it doesn’t matter.[2] Don’t see you as the type that cares to do that I could be wrong. I am the type that would totally play the game and enjoy it.
The education system is in dire need of change and teaching students computer science is good, but before we go that route, let’s first look at what each individual school really needs. For some schools, we may need to address the social issues before we can start talking about changing the curriculum. To understand what I mean, let me share a story with you that a neighbor recently shared with me.My neighbor, a recently retired attorney from CA, moved to Chicago with his wife, a former public school teacher. She wanted to stay involved with education and decided to volunteer. She volunteers at a local public school where the majority of the students are from lower-income families.When local religious and social organizations first “adopted” the school, they did so with the idea of donating books and other items tied to learning. They quickly found though that what the students needed more than these items was simple basic necessities – food, clothing, personal hygiene items, etc. Students would go home on Fridays and not have anything to eat again until Monday morning. So now these organizations focus on providing the students with groceries every Friday after school to ensure that the kids have something to eat over the weekend, deodorant to get parents to come into the school for parent/teacher meetings, swimsuits for the kids so they have something to wear during swim class.
“It is a place where kids who are headed to flipping hamburgers for a living get an option to do something a bit more stimulating.” As long as you don’t believe coding is the only way to get there…then I agree wholeheartedly.
We have just have the opposite of the problem in India…which is much a bigger problem for a country after some decade…every single asshole (soul) wants to be a coder and nothing else …
To Teach to Code or Not seems to be one of the trendy debates in education today. I enjoyed this recent article from Wired that others have mentioned (http://www.wired.com/opinio…. I believe having an educational infrastructure to teach coding is crucial, but I also agree that “Coding is only a panacea in a world where merit is all it takes to succeed.” What we need to do in STEM education is teach and inspire inquiry and problem solving. And we need a middle school pipeline to these science- and coding- focused high schools. That’s my focus.
.Fred, part of your considerable charm is the absolute knowledge that you simply do not GAS about what anyone thinks. That is the mindset of the truly independent man, the truly dangerous man.As someone who has long since misplaced my GAS meter I can appreciate it completely.Screw them all.JLM.
That’s why the first $10 million is called”FU money”!”GAS” — great TLA!
This is why I have Albert’s blog sent to my email daily, and read it daily. I don’t need a critic with little context to opine on something he/she likely doesn’t understand. I know that Albert has a point of view and take it on face value there are pros and cons to everything.
This is why our schools underperform in math, science, computer science. Our education system is run by English majors who are terrified of anything technical. Most reporters who cover this space share the same phobias…Of course other countries (including European nations and Israel, not just Asia) do not share this phobia as seen by the latest PISA results. NYC’s kids need you Fred!
If its quotes we’re doing I humbly submit this one:“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” ― Charles Bukowski
Burger flipping isn’t even going to be an option for kids born today. As political pressure artificially forces up the wages/cost of low wage low skill jobs the ROI for automation will become more compelling. In 10 or 20 or even less years we will be able to walk into a Subway or McDonald’s and have an intelligent, sanitary machine prepare and serve our food, the ingredients or which may have arrived by a self driving delivery truck from an automated distribution warehouse. All of this enabled by mechanical, electrical, and software engineers earning a great living and keeping the cost of our consumer goods low. It’s our choice as to whether those jobs and innovations originate here or somewhere else, or whether the talent is imported or home grown. I don’t personally care, but I would prefer to see us compete on an open playing field rather than with a self induced handicap.
This does seem an unfair quote in this example, but i would suggest that the author is probably referring to some of the well known members of the tech community, particularly on the west coast, who have some very idiosyncratic views.You don’t have to look hard to find them (it took me about 2 minutes to find the examples below), though I doubt any of them would contribute to something as selfless as teaching coding at schools.http://www.nytimes.com/2013…http://news.yahoo.com/blogs…
Good on you, Fred. Those yoga asanas are like code too, y’know. Frankly, I tend to skip my weekly yoga class to bring my kids to weekend math so that they one day they are able to code. Can’t wait till the older one turns 8 and gets to go to camp!
Haters gonna hate.
Along with understanding the machines that increasingly control our world is understanding how the world actually works (science and math). And the results for the US in recent international studies have not been encouraging.http://www.theguardian.com/…
He’s spot on about our ‘idiosyncratic’ view of the world tho. 🙂 Proud to have it.
You tell ’em Fred! Why is it that so many journalists seem to think no one will take their work seriously unless they end with a smarmy dismissal of all that is right in the world? Is it supposed to be some form of journalistic objectivism to act like one of the goth kids from South Park?
Seems to me that the “fiat from on high” is actually motivated by the real world demand for – and shortage of – engineers to build the machines that are increasingly controlling our world – not to mention a real passion for a discipline that, until this “education evangelism,” was a very exclusive and homogenous world. I don’t know how training people for good jobs they can be excited about can be construed as a bad thing, but as my grandfather used to say, Illegitimi non carborundum.
Seems to me that the “fiat from on high” is actually motivated by the real world demand for – and shortage of – engineers to build the machines that are increasingly controlling our world – not to mention a real passion for a discipline that, until this “education evangelism,” was a very exclusive and homogenous world. Don’t know how training people for good jobs they can be excited about can be construed as a bad thing, but as my grandfather used to say, Illegitimi non carborundum.
1400 kids for 108 spots at an unscreened school (AFSE) doesn’t sound like “fiat from on high” to me.
i think we are not ready for change
What a disappointing finish to an otherwise good article.How could there be “grassroots demand” for teaching kids programming skills when the majority of parents don’t know what the benefits are? There is certainly grassroots demand for teaching kids skills that can get them good jobs! Especially with a 15% unemployment rate among young Americans (http://www.huffingtonpost.c…I’ve started teaching my kids to program – just so they do something better with their computers than play video games. (http://learnedbydoing.com/p…
Was the time spent to understand and connect with the other stakeholders in the education process?Was the time spent understanding the teachers and involving them?If not, then yes it was by fiat and shame on you.If yes, then shame on the article for not acknowledging the outreach.
leaders lead.
So what about certain kinds of kids who don’t like computers? Who are dumb as a rock? What does this leave them?
Yoga saves!
It seems to me that what’s happening here is a fetishizing of coding as a kind of talisman or totem of power.And the more technocommunist minded of the tech elites and tech oligarchs have bought into this utopia that coding is something “the masses” can be taught.Why, a homeless man can learn to code and then create an app that will sell and lift him out of poverty and help the environment! this is the Horatio Alger story of our time.But coding is just a rote function that eventually will get chunked up and put with interface that any idiot can click on to do more stuff — or not. More and more things that used to be the strict privileged domain of “experts” are now DIY. The whole notion of “webmasters” — these special privileged wise men who could put up pages on the awesome Internet — is less and less important as anybody can put up a WordPress or Typepad blog. The cost has been driven down.In the old days, when cars first appeared, men were particularly obsessed about working them, repairing them, understanding them, and only certain men knew all this, or hired driver-mechanics to run their cars.But eventually, all of this was smoothed over and simplified so that anybody could get into a car and turn the key and drive after a few lesson. They didn’t need to know how internal combustion works.Coding is no different. It’s a mundane thing that eventually will find its garage-mechanic place in our society. We’re just not there yet.
Is the control really just poverty? Do poor kids in the US do just as well as poor kids in China (given that even in this comparison poverty is relative)? Or are we only seeing a correlation where the wealthier can escape a crappy public education system for better private options?
Just took a look, thanks. When I have time I will look at the full report, but I suspect it won’t have the data to answer my questions. Seems to be focusing on the gap between haves and have nots vs. absolute poverty. Unlikely controlled for public vs. private education either. Still, interesting read.
Ageless