Although the Department of Labor predicts the nation will add 1.2 million new computer-science-related jobs by 2022, we're graduating proportionately fewer computer science majors than we did in the 1980s, and the number of students signing up for Advanced Placement computer science has flatlined.
An article in MotherJones explains that there are a host of reasons why, from boring curricula to a lack of qualified teachers to the fact that in most states computer science doesn't count toward graduation requirements. But should we worry? The answer is "probably." While the popularity of Codecademy and Code.org might suggest that learning to code is easy and fun, the truth is that it's difficult to develop the skills needed to qualify for programmer jobs, and many people would find those jobs tedious.
Complicating matters is the fact that the main contribution of young programmers isn't the software they write, but the way they think. It's called "computational thinking," and it involves finding innovative ways to apply coding skills.
Read the full story.
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