The New York Times Article “Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and lately, Coding” highlights the new role that programming is finding for itself in education, from Kindergarten through the twelfth grade.
We can first start to think of the supply of education by the schools and the demand generated by parents. As technology keeps on taking a larger role in our everyday lives, coding to “many parents […] coding [has started] look[ing] less like an extracurricular activity and more like a basic life skill”. In addition, we live in a time where children’s attention is much too often focused on iPads, TVs, consoles, etc….the list is endless, electronics are seen as a parents’ biggest foes. However, “parents love the idea of giving children something to do with computers that they see as productive”, which has lead to the surge of demand of CS (computer science) programs.
As parents have increased their demand of CS curriculums, schools have increased their supply of CS courses, “Chicago’s public school system hopes to have CS as a graduation requirement at all of its 187 high schools in five years”. Competition between suppliers has also lead to this change in education. Free after-school classes have started being offered, which attracts a larger amount of students and generates an increase the school’s reputation, attracting parents such as the “director of engineering at Twitter”. Another reason for suppliers to further develop their CS programs is external funding; some teachers even worry about the technology “industry’s heavy role” in shaping education due to financial support.
Yes, the role of technology has increased in our lives, but why have parents really started to value CS and why has there been such involvement on all levels to promote CS instead, and not only by suppliers. The reason is the opportunity cost of CS when thinking of children’s futures. CS according to the interviewees “might someday lead to a great job or even instant riches” and that is what children would be losing by not having learned programing. The job opportunities, the happiness generated by being able to learn while being on a computer, that of the parents who see their spend their children waste less time, who then see themselves as more successful parents, the specific skills which CS teaches and its overarching importance in our society are some of the principle factors which contribute to its unmatched opportunity cost.
I think this also has a lot to do with the fact that computer programming is a relatively recent industry. In class we talked about how in perfect competition, new firms will enter the market until cost of production is equal to costs. Since coding is a relatively new industry, there have been only a few firms producing and a large demand for their products. The barrier to entry in this industry isn’t capital or patents, but simple know -how. People are realising that the computer skills industry is a lucrative one, and therefore people are seeking to learn the skills required to enter the market. We can assume that people will continue to learn how to code until the cost of coding is equal to the pay rate, as we would expect from a competitive market.
I agree with the above comment. Since coding is a hot new job market, the emphasis on learning the skills now is the primary focus and is quickly gaining popularity. Who knows–maybe the need to know these skills will become so popular that is becomes the norm! That would cause a huge shift in jobs.