"What that said to women and underrepresented minorities was, “How would you like to learn the advanced grammar of a language that you aren’t interested in?”"
.
As a software engineer who happens to be a woman, I found this super INSULTING. They are replacing fundamentals of computer science with "building an app"? They are dumbing down the expectations to attract more women? In heavens name - WHY ? I don't think lack of females or African- American/Hispanics is due to lack of interest or ability to understand advanced grammar of computer languages (which by the way is mesmerizingly beautiful in its logic). Do you know young girls in China, India & other Asian countries are enthusiastically joining computer science in droves? Maybe the low number of females in US in this discipline is due to how we see them & how they see themselves in regards to computers & programming. College board is implementing the wrong solution as they are reading the cause wrong.
51
This is SO shallow. Moreover: learning to use a computer language, and criticially reading the US Constitution, as each activities do-able in a week's time (although at least with learning computer languages, you can practice and learn more if you like.)
36
critical thinking above all
27
"we have a growing perception and reality that college campuses are no longer venues for the free exchange of ideas and real debate of consequential issues"-well, here's code. Who is the 'we' here and where are they getting their 'perception?' certainly the right has sought to advance this perception. But is it also reality? Perception does not always coincide with reality--and sometimes it makes reality. As someone who actually--unlike the NYTimes columnists who perpetually pontificate on the terrible things happening on campuses--spends the bulk of my time on one, teaching students about all kinds of codes, I'd like to ask Mr. Friedman to do a little rethink.
13
Yes, we need more protesters against Trump and also more women and minorities who know a bit of code! I am sure both will come in handy while serving coffee at Starbucks.
15
$500 million added to the cost of APPLYING to college. Thank you College Board (the name gives it legitimacy) and the NYT for this free ad.
19
My fathers advice to his three children was....
1. Work two jobs, live off of one paycheck and save they other paycheck.
2. Learn to work with your hands or you'll spend more than a third of your income paying someone else to screw in a light bulb.
College isn't the end all to be all.
33
I think the College Board is a malignant monopoly. You should hang around with better people.
34
From the "success" of our Current Occupant, one might well conclude that you don't have to have computer skills or know anything about the Constitution; you don't even have to know how to read. I hope our new House will find a way to expose the fact that he is functionally illiterate.
Turnip. cannot. read.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd79UsXSLWg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzqbE7yYxE0
17
The most important skill is reading. Tom Friedman must know this. It is the skill that grants access to knowledge and wisdom.
But becoming a good reader is as hard as learning to code.
21
Does anyone read books? I have used my analytical skills and determined this opinion piece is ridiculous.
34
These will not be silver bullets to insure success. Out country would be better served to put the Constitution and civics back into the curriculum starting around grade 5. Basic understanding of how computers work, the dangers of social media, the importance of human interaction all need to be taught starting in kindergarten.
29
Sure. Now, at the risk of sounding completely outdated I'd say that the one indispensable discipline, largely untaught today, which encompasses these two codes and many others, is philosophy.
Philosophy is not just excellent training for the mind, it teaches essential skills that are used in ALL mental activities, including computer science and understanding the US constitution.
Indeed, if the GAFA founders had received better training in both sociology and ethics, two branches of philosophy, our world would be less scary.
Never mind the obvious necessity of teaching in the Bible Belt, the Rust Belt, and a few other deplorable places.
22
I have thought about this article for a couple of days. At first I thought, “How cool and simple!” But with more thought, the article and the author seem prone to distortion. Specifically, it is not taking a civics class or knowing of the five freedoms and key court cases that empower a high school student. Rather, it is inhabiting the class position and being already advantaged that l leads most young citizens to think they deserve to agitate, lead, and influence current politics. The advice on computer coding is more straight forward and less fraught with the authors’ blindness to how privilege accompanies the activation of social and political power among the young.
9
It does not take a genius to figure out that along with the three R's, a good education today should provide a strong dose of the three C's -- coding, calculus, and civics.
What I don't get is why this has to be AP -- a for profit system that contributes immensely to education inequality. If public education were uniformly excellent, as was envisioned by our founders, and as it is in many other countries, all high schoolers would graduate with three-C competency, not just those from wealthy suburban liberal enclaves. AP would meet a well deserved death by starvation.
Education inequality is one of the most horrid and intractable facets of the red-blue divide in the US today, one which red demagogues and kleptocrats have despicably created and then exploited, while having no concern for those whom they exploit.
And so while liberals should be all for Friedman's two codes, they should also be appalled that children from some schools graduate as much as five years behind their peers at the other end in basic skills. With apologies to Lewis Carroll, they are almost literally reeling, writhing, and fainting in coils in the face of the brutal lives ahead of them.
19
Objectively speaking, the US Constitution is a bit of a mess. Amended 27 times. Odd 2nd amendment (oddly -- if not mistalkenly -- interpreted by the US Supreme Court) that has been used to justify almost unfettered access to firearms (leading to extraordinary levels of societal violence). 13 amendments before African Americans were fully recognized as humans. Your column seems to suggest that the only part of the "code" that is taught is the first amendment (which is indeed a highlight!) ... but what about the rest? A complicated story for sure, but not necesarily an easily decipherable code to live by!
15
The "code" kids need to know to get into college: How to play the game. The game includes the importance of the personal statement and how that conveys their voice and self reflection. That single essay is as important as their SATs and ACTs. The game means knowing the language of college.
For example, on college applications,
"Recommended" means DO IT.
"Optional" means DO IT.
"Encouraged" means DO IT.
Kids who don't know the real-world meaning of these and other words/terms when it comes to navigating the world of higher education will not be successful from the get-go (applying for college), not will they be able to "read" supervisors' messaging, advisors' advice, and the system's requirements. "Codes" include being able to transition from the world of their homes and high schools to the white, middle/upper class world of college/higher education. Kids who come from poverty and kids of color will struggle with the "secret" system of communication and college acceptance and success. Their resilience is not the issue. The fact that kids who live in homes which are so, so unlike college are incredibly resilient. They know how to code switch. What they don't know is the institutionalized racism and associated barriers that are embedded in higher education. Teaching kids to play the game and understand the language of the game is essential if they are to win the game.
24
The U.S. Constitution sets a rather low bar for literacy in general, even if one throws in related historical documents. I'm an atheist and I'd rather have students master the King James Bible, which more or less guarantees the U.S. Constitution as a piece of cake.
As for "coding," it's a fair, appealing substitute for a good mathematics education, since it seems that directly is intolerable. Programming of any sort importantly introduces students to formal modes of thought that are ruthlessly unforgiving of attitude and intention. (As a public policy matter, we might want to choose a language that is not corporate property....) But we shoudn't deceive ourselves that lessons in coding are much in the way of practical career preparation for the masses, since we are talking about a collection of related fields and industries in which most 30 year olds, a decade or so from high school, are considered too slow, just old and in the way, unless they have escaped upward to management.
There's no magic bullet alternative to families and a culture at large that respect knowledge and its acquisition.
4
I think they forgot personal finance. If you want to have any sort of lasting influence you need to be financially independent and know how to manage your wealth.
12
At UCLA (rah!), I learned almost as much from the Bruin Mountaineers - sadly, no longer an organization - as I did from academics. Perseverence, cooperation, respect for all others, and a lot of other things, all contributed to success in life after school. But I agree that knowledge of the law of our land is very important and should be taught to all. As to computers: yes, it would be good for everyone to know enough not to be scared of them - but doesn't that happen almost automatically, with today's "smart" phones?
3
Two more codes to keep in mind:
1) The right DNA code
2) The right zip code*
* Ever since GOP decided that only the rich should have good schools.
27
This is overall a good article, but "Codes" is a lousy word to use when "Skills" fits perfectly. "Codes" is confounded with "coding" when applied in the realm of Computer Science, which is itself the wrong term to use when Mr. Friedman clearly means proficiency in using computers rather than the actual study of Computer Science.
7
Dangerously wrong. Coding is a task. Tasks will be done by robots. Creativity (in all forms) and communication of ideas are what the focus should be.
While I certainly agree that all citizens should have a solid grounding in basic civics, thorough knowledge of the Constitution does not necessarily drive anyone to be more engaged.
17
Of all the skills and knowledge that we test young people for that we know are correlated with success in college and in life, which is the most important?
Maybe I'm an old fogy but I believe young people need to know how to read and as well s know simple rules of grammar and do ARITHMETIC not math with sets and rotational symmetry and different bases ] but ARITHMETIC.
7
Many Supreme Court decisions are 5-4.
That shows that even the Justices do not agree on what the Constitution says.
Friedman should understand that Court decisions are not based on the Constitution but on expediency.
The late Justice Hugo Black was a great Justice.
However he supported the WW2 Japanese internment saying "We were at war:.
That is not a constitutional argument but one based on expediency.
Black often said the 1st amendment said "No law means no law" about freedom of speech.
But in Cohen, Black in the minority voted to uphold the obscenity conviction of a young man who wore a shirt that carried the message " [naughty word] the draft" on the grounds the [naughty word] was too obscene.
Again a decision based on expediency.
2
What happened to having a well-rounded education? STEM is not all that matters. Reading matters. Spelling matters. Social skills matter. I see now that most people in America not only don't know how to spell, they don't read, either. They don't care to. I happen to work in tech as a content expert. Trust me when I say that Americans seem only to care about flashiness and nothing about content. This is what happens in a country that glorifies money and sports and doesn't provide free higher education.
17
Looking at what we are doing to our climate and ability to grow crops, find ample water; what we are doing to huge populations who need to migrate to find the resources to live; what we are doing politically creating a global overclass - with all of that I'm beginning to think we need to teach our kids how to grow food, make clothes, engineer simple machines, find water, build living spaces. Maybe some basic health care skills too. And while we learn to fix our machines, we could use the skills at fixing code that runs them too.
Go ahead and study computers and our Constitution. But maybe give some time over to trying to learn to McGyver problems, too.
5
I like these and would prefer a third code - Financial Literacy. We should be teaching the basics of economics, budgeting, and finance in high school.
6
Good to learn testing reflects shifting realities of life in a fast paced society. Reassuring for those of us with the hourglass tilted against us.
1
I don’t work for an “important engineering firm” or a Wall Street bank, but I do work in the field of social work for intellectually disabled adults. I am not a social worker, but I do see the results of their work every day, and what I am seeing is, to me, horrifying. The nonprofit organization I work for hires degreed social work specialists, with either a Bachelors or Masters degree. Some have just graduated, but some have worked in our field for years. What I see is an almost total lack of ability to communicate in writing, which is essential when everything you do must be thoroughly documented. They cannot write, spell, or use acceptable grammar to save their lives. But they are degreed??? How did they write their thesis, or other important papers while they were in school? I agree that a good knowledge of technology is important, and a working acquaintance with our Constitution is an excellent idea, but first of all, schools need to teach their students how to communicate using the written word - in other words, GRAMMAR and SPELLING are being neglected. Who lets these young people graduate from high school and college without the basic tools they will need to be successful? Or am I just hopelessly old fashioned?
16
Maybe you also need to know when an answer is a non-answer. Maybe you need to understand the importance of basic definitions. As written in this story, there is no evidence presented for the conclusion of the '2 codes' being the most important. You may have asked them to show their work, you may even have seen it, but reading this story does not enlighten anyone on their, or your, evidence for these, as against all the other 'codes'. And, of course, there is no definition of 'success', without which it is impossible to determine if the 'codes' (or the evidence if it had been presented) actually are determinative, or just correlates.
13
I suggest that students need a comprehensive knowledge of world history and understanding the people who influenced it for better or worse.
For it is written that those who do not know history will be forced to repeat it.
The founding fathers who gave us our principles of government did not have computers, but did have a very good understanding of the world around them. They knew the history of England, which led them to the conclusion that they would not repeat it in the new country in order to form a republic, granting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all citizens.
10
In speaking with entering students and their families at my university I was approached separately by two fathers.
One was an executlve at an important financial services firm. He said students from major universities were hired by his firm. But they were steeped in academic number crunching that the firm could teach them, but they were unable to do rudimntary problem solving that was critical.
Another father, an executive from an important engineering firm, approached me and said that engineering students from well known universities could not articulate or communicate and share their approaches that was central to real life engineering projects.
There may be false assumptions by major firms about student competence, but neither executive was at all interested in either computer codes or the constitution.
There are serious problems both in education and in public platitudes about what is needed in the real life work place.
8
I respect Mr. Friedman's opinions, experience, and great skill as a journalist. But I think he missed a 3rd CODE for college and life, the most important of all: the capacity and discipline for HARD WORK. Some have it; most do not. How is it nurtured? From families, communities, culture, and encountering failure and rising above it. I hired many people over the course of my life and in my experience, no personal quality is more important than one's ability to put the proverbial shoulder to the wheel. That gets forgotten all too often in our country and is one key reason why immigration is so important to our collective future.
7
As a high school teacher (at a school that offers AP courses) I'm a little disturbed by the seemingly reductionist thinking of these powerful men from a powerful body, whose decisions determine and shape the courses taught at our nation's schools. Computers and the Constitution, sure they are important and ought to be studied with vigor. However, so should languages (modern and, gasp!, ancient) and economics and architecture and music and ecology and a whole host of other human endeavors that do not alliterate with one another, and for which standardized tests might not easily be developed and marketed.
17
15 Supreme Court cases as well as nine foundational documents - So what are the cases and the documents???
@Yummy
Interesting question
Cases- Marbury v Madison, Dred Scott, Plessey v Ferguson, The New Deal Commerce Clause cases,
Topeka Board of Education, Love v Virginia, Sullivan v New York Times, Miranda, Griswold v. Connecticutt, Roe v Wade and a few more recent cases.
Documents
The Mayflower Compact, The Articles of Confederation, The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, The Federalist Papers,
Washington's Letter to the Providence RI Synagouge, Washington's Farewell Address, Jefferson's Letter on Religouis Liberty, the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's second Inauguration Speech.
I feel sorry for children whose parents take advice from Thomas Friedman and the College Board on how to raise them. While it's surely better than having parents who take zero advice or don't concern themselves with parenting practices, at all, it's sad to see parents and kids led astray by establishment representatives that give conventional and near-comically outdated guidance. "Computer Science"? Should they start with "C++"? The American Constitution? I'm a sheep farmer in the middle of nowhere and even I can see a lame attempt at social clairvoyance. I guess he's got a following that still expects him to be a soothsayer.
Eveyone needs to know when it's time to make way.
6
“Let me write the songs of a nation, and I care not who writes its laws.”
— Andrew Fletcher
Scottish writer and politician
“A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”
—Theodore Roosevelt
What Tom is writing about is timely and relevant, but, beyond computer skill and constitutional knowledge, we need to raise people of altruism, with a glowing core of decency and integrity. People who have a basic love of their fellow man regardless of race, gender, creed, or sexual orientation. That is primary to social and national cohesion. This takes parents equipped for the task, and the rest of us helping where appropriate. Vocational skill and rights understanding is icing on the cake.
8
Mr. friedman’s claims fall short of being self evident. That said, they are consistent with the Founder’s self-evident truth that an educated citizenry protected ny the Constitution is critical to the success of a democratic republic.
Knowledge and its derivative machines constantly expand. You may not need to be a programer or a Constitutional lawyer, but surely you must be familiar with how and why or how the computer and the Constitution work.
Take the automobile. One does not need to be automotive engineer to exploit all the benefits of this “personal transporter”. However, you must understand its operation in a general way in order to exploit its benefits.
Take the reverse example. Place a 10 th grade student beore a 1960 “rotary dial phone”. Tell her to call her mother in Canada using the long distance operator. I believe she will fail. She simply soes not understand its code.
What a sloppy example that teacher sets with his shirt tail hanging out, his sleeves scattered around his arms, and no tie.
Perhaps Mr Friedman, not President Trump, is the one who has not read the Constitution!
I have a niece and nephew, both now young adults, who’ve been home “schooled” by my sister, a “born-again” fundamentalist. My nephew can code. He can’t read or write or think. My niece, it seems, can’t even do that.
And of course neither has a clue about the actual meaning of the Constitution, particularly that bit about freedom of, and from, religion.
And yes, they both got abysmal SAT scores, which surprised their parents but no-one else; but it didn’t matter because, to the extent either has pursued addition education, they are doing it at “Christian” establishments.
We have a bigger problem than coding, or civics.
9
Exactly right! I work at a large technology company and the people that I encounter that have been home schooled are typically not well equipped to succeed in the workplace. In the vast majority of cases the education they received had a priority focus on Christian fundamentals. What a great disservice to their future. Decent people, but clearly lacking in critical business skills. The "teachers" can't be convinced that their methodology was anything less than top notch.
2
Just remember, if you can't discuss some geography, history, art, theater, film, psychology, politics, music, or how to make chili, nobody will want to talk to you.
6
We would also do well to recall and teach the wisdom of Robert Goldwin in his article from 1990, "How the Constitution Promotes Progress". The Founders did not prescribe an economic system per se, but through this underappreciated clause strongly indicated the profit motive as key. http://www.aei.org/publication/how-the-constitution-promotes-progress/
This should be taught to ALL students starting in first grade. Why only AP? Also, can we please get back to teaching kids how to tell analog time and write in cursive?
137
@Nancy Serious question: why do kids need to learn to write in cursive? Most of the professionals I know don't use it, and in my white collar existence, I've never known someone to be taken more or less seriously based on whether they write in cursive or print. Long-form business correspondence is almost exclusively written on a computer. What is the benefit of cursive?
There are plenty of things that students should be learning. Cursive seems pretty low on the list.
13
You had me up until the cursive part. It's useless.
10
@Nancy And get off my lawn!
6
The AP Principles course does not replace the Java based AP CS course. It serves a different purpose. The Java based AP CS is designed to align with the first CS course that computer science majors take. The AP Priniciples course is designed to align with computing courses taken by nonmajors.
My university does not accept the CS Principles course for credit because it does not align with any course we offer. This is true at many schools. Students who intend to major in CS and who want credit for the first semester CS course need to take the traditional AP CS course.
3
That leaves us artists...right where we've always been. On the outside looking in.
5
Emphasis on founding documents, and the necessity for IT knowledge, as preparation for the future seems forward-thinking and necessary.
The AP courses, however, emphasize test scores over genuine student engagement. It seems their goal is not student learning, but earning money from AP courses and exams -- to pay high salaries?
It's a real shame, because our country would be stronger, and the underrepresented could fight for themselves with more civics knowledge.
Since 2017, the current Administration and Congressional Republicans have ignored their Constitutionally described job descriptions, to America's detriment. They count on Americans' ignorance to advance harmful agendas.
With international hacking of our cyber-systems, for fresh water, electricity, military strategy, and elections, along with future careers dependent on robotics and AI, being tech savvy is imperative.
Knowledge frequently brings power. If AP civics and IT actually deliver, we can prepare for and fight those who would take advantage of our ignorance.
3
I was a programmer long before law school. So I appreciate the focus on the two codes. People should understand that the Constitution means only what a court says it means. That is often not the plain language of the text.
Everything in the Bill of Rights comes with limitations and exceptions. Freedom of speech doesn't license defamation, obscenity, commercial speech, incitement to harm, perjury, fighting words, etc. Government can impose time, place and manner restrictions, so you can't use your bullhorn at midnight.
All other amendments are similarly limited, except of course, for the Second Amendment. Our newest fundamental right admits of no abridgment at all, according to the NRA.
You needn't be a lawyer but you should study law.
1
The problem with this is the assumption that there's ever a world were there will be enough jobs for everyone who has the right vocational skills. This can never happen. If everyone knew how to program computers right now, we'd just have a lot of unsuccessful or unemployed programmers.
There will always be a range of skill, intelligence, innate ability, or what have you, that will create a range of different people. There will always be people who aren't really capable of learning to code and doing it well.
There's nothing wrong with that. What's wrong is that our system disregards these people.
3
@Evan:True enough. I remember all the aeronautical engineers who worked as barristas in the '70s. Required skill sets change. Some programmers can't get jobs because their programming skills are out of date, or they don't want to work for what the reduced wages that many H1B-type programmers work for.
1
@mlbex I would also add, as others have said, that the more important fundamental skills for being a good programmer are logic and problem solving.
I'm a programmer myself, and I have encountered those you mention, who's skills are out of date. But the best programmers will just adapt and learn a new language in virtually no time.
1
The government part is good, but it shouldn't be limited to AP classes. Learning about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and key Supreme Court cases should be part of every student's regular social studies courses. Only students serious about college take AP classes, but all students will become adults and eligible to vote. The ones who don't go to college need to know the principles of our country's government too. The computer science part could also be included in regular classes if the curriculum is imaginative and allows educators some leeway. Remember, only about a third of American adults currently earn a Bachelor's degree. If these skills are so crucial for success, then all students need to learn them.
1
I am a software engineer with more then a decade of experience. My focus has been more on building business specific software applications. Generally it includes complex business rules driven by real world problems. I have not worked on what I call fundamental Computer Science type problems (i.e. creating programming languages, using machine learning for computer vision, etc)
The biggest challenges I face are, in this order:
1. Problem Solving
2. People
3. Arithmetic / Algebra
Basically I solve problems. I look at what is being done today with a skeptical eye, work with my customers to figure out what they are ACTUALLY trying to do, and use my math skills to understand how to program the math behind the scenes.
Notice something not on the top 3 list? Anything specific to Computer Science or Programming languages. This is of course important. Understanding data structure and algorithm design is critical to getting the performance my customers require, but fundamentally it is not the a first order problem in my line of work (again if you work on some of the fundamental computer science things my list does not apply). My guess is a majority of Software Engineers are in the same boat as me.
My point is, getting the 'vocational' programming skills is a prerequisite for being a software engineering, it is widely insufficient to become a successful one.
5
Typical Friedman. Simplistic, self-satisfied, and besides the point.
5
Our president has no idea what the constitution is or what it contains. If students see this, how can they be motivated to learn about it?
2
The US Constitution is on par with typing numbers into a machine? I laugh. You might as well equate analysis of the First Amendment's protection of our freedom to travel with cleaning out a carburetor.
1
Hmmm...How about the ability to read and comprehend what you read? And the corollary, the ability to express your thoughts cogently and coherently in writing? These two skills are invaluable. And what a bleak world we would live in if our citizenry is reduced down to nothing more than folks you can write computer code is for soulless apps and programs. Where is Mr. Huxley and his brave New World? Paging Mr. Huxley. Your dystopian table for one is ready…
8
How excellent: that students, if college and SAT bound, will have
to read at least one written document with respect and retention.
How tragic: that in digital-corporate America, students are being pushed further and further away from the verbal and writing skills
that would give them an edge in many professions and that might
make them more responsible citizens. This new SAT emphasis can only help to dummy down students with regards to literacy,
and turn teachers' attention away from reading and writing.
3
This just proves what I have witnessed over the past forty years students no longer attend universities to acquire an education they attend to acquire a job. Very costly vocational training.
5
To be clear, the first amendment does not protected a first person's speech from another person's interrupting (speech) and telling the first person to shut their mouth (more speech).
It only protects your speech from prior restraint by the government (only).
Nonsense. Free speech is pointless
if screaming, interruption, and violence is allowed under the pretense of alternative free speech. What I sense from you and most so called progressives is s lack of respect or even support for our constitution much less an understanding of it.
3
Sounds like College as TwitterKnowledge to me. And, Mr. Friedman, what evidence do you have to support your claim that there is a "growing...reality that college campuses are no longer venues for the free exchange of ideas and real debate of consequential issues"? Anyone for Homer, Plato, Shakespeare, Locke, Darwin, Dickens, Dostoevsky?
2
Note that when we were in high school, they taught Pascal or C++, and since then, it has been a Java world. So, you need to get a good grounding in computer science rather than achieve virtuosity in coding.
1
Everyone needs to speak at least two (human) languages fluently, to appreciate the importance of cultural frames for differing ways of understanding the world, and to obtain a perspective on one's own society that cannot be gleaned any other way.
This is more important than learning to talk to computers. Computers are simple by comparison. Teaching logic as foundational, for both mathematics and language, will make basic coding skills easy.
6
I think having good communications skills (verbal and written) is very important to success in work and life. I'm surprised to hear that computer coding is considered so important. I would have flunked out of my college data processing class had it not been for a friend's husband who wrote code for a living. Not my cup of tea.
5
Studying the Constitution would be a good start but having basic government and civics studies is just as important. And start having students write every day. Have them learn how to write and communicate in concise language longer than 140 characters.
4
It’s nice that these topics are taught in AP classes. Why are they not a part of every high school curriculum?
1
Perhaps the people at the College Board haven’t been adapting the SATs and AP exams so much to inspire and measure knowledge as they have been to bolster a business that has lost favor among many institutions of higher learning. At best, the tests will test a knowledge base; predictors have to look at flexibility in applying skills to solve problems in a changing environment. How about we stop trying to rank importance of subjects and concentrate on acquiring knowledge and skills to solve problems?
3
Only one skill important to me, to learn how to mesh your thinking with.the material you are reading, say, Conrad. Jl
1
When I went to college and even graduate school, individual computers didn't exist or were in their infancy. I learned a lot more than computer code and the Constitution. I learned how the human body and mind work, how to analyze ideas, how to communicate with other people and how to think, for starters. I studied not just mathematics but also logic and statistics, so I could understand claims made for a variety of products and situations.
I've become very conversant with computers since 1985, but I see the computer as a tool, not as an end in itself. I don't have to know how to code it to make it work for me, just as I don't have to know how to repair my car's engine to drive it.
Understanding the basics, the 3 Rs, is as important as ever.
10
The constitution is like the bible in that it can be interpreted in any way that suits the purposes of the interpreter. And it is only somewhat less a work of poetic mythology. This whole "two code" thing strikes me as dystopian.
3
I'm really curious about how kids can computer science without mastering the art of programming in SOME language. It's sort of like learning journalism without learning how to read and write.
2
This is nonsense.
"... any young person who can master the principles and basic coding techniques that drive computers and other devices will be more prepared for nearly every job ..."
That's as silly as saying "any person who can master the principles and basic mechanical techniques that power our cars and other devices will be more prepared to do every job". It's true at some trivial level, but is ultimately misguided.
Hardly anybody needs to be a mechanical engineer. Hardly anybody needs to be a software engineer.
You need to know how to OPERATE a car, not design or fix it. You need to know how to OPERATE software, not design or fix it.
10
"you need to know how the code of the U.S. Constitution works."
That's all well & good, but "how the code of the U.S. Constitution works" changes with the makeup of SCOTUS...
1
I agree 100% with all the criticisms of the college board testing system. There are vast inadequacies. However, we are the most diverse nation on the planet and whatever system you design for evaluating the intellectual skills of 18 year olds and their chances of success in college, it will never be fair to everyone.
2
Why not post the on-line link to the syllabi for these two courses (if they exist in that format)?
4
Studying the Constitution by itself is much too narrow. Students should be required to study governmental systems and political science.
To be an educated person and a citizen in a democratic society students should study epistemology, basis statics and experimental design.
3
Only these two? I agree they are a priority. But the article suggests nothing else is important. Wrong.
1
Everyone needs to know Photoshop because neary every image that you see has been manipulated in some way.
Everyone needs to understand statistics because it is easy to lie by selectively using statistics to prove or disprove a point.
2
So what you are saying is that these two guys decided on what THEY think is important for everyone to know, and they have the power to enforce it on everyone? How marvelously democratic that is...
6
They should create a version of the A.P. U.S. Government and Politics course for adults.
3
I'd argue for a third code as well - Ethics.
Look at Facebook/ Twitter/ social media in general. Sure you can learn to code apps that enable your company to squeeze every single bit of personal info out of a victim/user to monetize for advertisers, but did anyone ever stop to think where a red line was?
Obviously not.
And now these megacompanies and their owners are multi-billion$$$ behemoths, with tentacles that reach into every corridor of Congress.Does anyone expect any change?
So hopefully coders of the future can learn from our mistakes and try to find ways to undue the carnage wrought on our privacy by Zuck, Sandberg , Dorsey, et.al..
Otherwise "1984" won't be fiction, but an operators manual.
4
The article never even bothers to frame what success is defined as. That's problem #1. Income? Happiness? Career flexibility? Is it point in time or does it span decades?
Problem #2 is the question of whether or not this is a shallow understanding of the larger potential skills acquired as a result of auditing those two course types (provided the causation is as solid as the apparent correlation). In other words, is it computer code that's a winner or the fact that it's really teaching you logic and how to think in different 'languages?' Is it learning the foundation of the Constitution itself or the fact that you're learning how to offer then defend solutions? The latter one seems particularly shallow to relate it to just the document itself considering the large number of successful people who are citizens of nations other than the US or immigrants who may or may not have studied the document within the confines of a nine month long AP course.
I'm disappointed Friedman just accepts and then represents the evidence presented by the somewhat suspect "College Board" who has a vested interest in getting pieces like this out there as promotional material. This feels like an ad more than anything.
3
To the extent that the SAT (Student Aptitude Test) departs from its IQ test origins, it will lose its ability to predict academic success.
1
I've found that the world is divided into people who understand fourth grade math and those who don't.
108
@Egg
Yes. In 1950s Ireland that meant fractions and decimals. When I landed in the USA in 1971 l found that everyone had 12 grades of school but only a few in the workforce could handle fractions and decimals.
17
@Egg Essentially. And any system that has a chance of working has to assume there are always going to be people who don't understand fourth grade math, provides jobs (or something) for them, and lets them live their lives with dignity.
13
@Egg Egg is either an optimist, or went to a poor elementary school.
1
I took AP US Government & Politics in 1992-93. One of the best classes of my entire educational career. But it wasn't because it was AP - that was a bonus. Rather the teacher really challenged us to think and to engage with ideas that were outside of our comfort zone. We read the Federalist Papers, books about partisanship, the Constitution and the newspaper.
I also distinctly remember a moment from that class, when one of the students made a disparaging comment about homosexual men to another student, thinking that he wouldn't be overheard. These were of course the days when people were just starting to feel comfortable about coming out in college, and they almost never came out in high school. The teacher very calmly pointed out that statistically at least one and probably more of our classmates likely identified as homosexual, and such a comment had no place in her classroom, thank you very much. She then proceeded with the rest of the day's lesson/discussion.
Not much in high school was memorable. But that moment was.
4
These codes are apples and oranges: both nutritious, yet distinctly different.
Computer code is constantly being modified.
It looks today very different from 10-15 years ago.
The US Constitution was last amended in 1992.
By adding 24 words to it.
Prior to that, it had been unchanged since 1971 when 49 words were added.
1
The primary benefit of studying computer programming is learning how to think logically and methodically. Another cheaper and more fun way to practice thinking logically and methodically is to play Sudoku (but you need to master more than just the easy ones).
1
The United States Constitution is much too narrow to study exclusively. All students should be required to study government and political systems.
In the time when fake news is accepted as news and science is in disrepute by a substantial minority of our population, students should be required to study epistemology, basic statics experimental design.
1
What about the code of socially acceptable behavior, which we all must master if we want to have any hope of success in life? It’s a code our culture teaches us, not necessarily rightly, from an early age, and is a lot more basic than the US Constitution.
1
I think focusing on coding is a mistake, if it primarily means learning the intricacies of Java (or C++ or any other high level language). Note that Silicon Valley is interested only in the most talented programmers, hence the emphasis on having access to the world's talent. On the other hand, learning programming in the context of quantitative analysis -- probability, statistics, physics and other sciences is important. For this purpose, a low activation energy language like Python or Matlab is most appropriate. Most people don't need calculus -- in the sense of learning the variety of integration tricks, determining whether infinite series converge and so forth -- even though the concepts of differentiation and integration are important. A course in which programming is employed to increase the gain of one's brain and increase one's critical discernment can be very useful indeed.
3
I think your reference to the "code" of the U.S. Constitution is, in fact, a reference to the high school subject of "civics." This was part of my high school (and college and law school education) in the 1960s. And its absence from high school curricula since the 1960s has, in my view, played a significant role in the decline of civil dialogue and debate in this country. In order to be functioning members of our society, individuals need to understand why the Founding Fathers structured our government the way they did (in reaction to the evils of "faction" they saw in England in the 1730s-1770s) and that their goal was to force individuals of "good will" to reason together to reach a compromise for the overall good of society. So I agree that kids today need to learn the "code" of the Constitution - civics. Bring back civics as a required high school course to teach the upcoming generation how our government operates -- and should operate!
5
Bravo! Well done! This piece should be mandatory reading starting in 8th grade. Every year for every person.
1
As with all too many columns of this type, I am reminded of the famous quote by Mencken, noting that for every complex problem there is a simple solution… And it is wrong.
3
How in the world did they correlate the US Constitution with success in life? I assume it was AP US Government, a test that only a small percentage of HS students take. To me that seems like begging the question.
5
Hmm, if more and more people develop coding capabilities, then the soulless overlords of Silicon Valley will have greater ability to choose among interchangeable (non-union) worker cogs and easily replace them if they demand anything like job security, work-life balance, etc. Yes, people need to have the ability to engage with technology, including adapting to changing technology. But what businesses want or need should not be the driver of education. Students need to be capable of critically evaluating the actions and structures that reinforce and increase inequality in our country and effectively taking action to address them, even if that is contrary to corporate and oligarch interests.
6
How about statistics? The better to not confuse correlation with causation.
3
Only a policy wonk would believe this.
What you really need to know is how to work with people and fit in with a group. If you can listen and respond to others, help them with their problems, and get them to like you and follow you, then you will be highly successful.
If you only care about yourself and your problems, you will never get anywhere.
4
I have to shake my head as affluent parents pay for their entitled offspring to take tutoring sessions about acing the SATs.
Taking the test decades ago, I scored extremely well on the verbal and not so bad on the math.
To prepare for the verbal section, I read avidly, both fiction and non-fiction, usually a couple of hours a day.
To prepare for the math section, I simply had paid attention in my math classes in first through eighth grade.
Any young person who can't be bothered to do that, especially if they are financially comfortable, probably doesn't deserve to go to college.
1
I'm not sure if Mr. Friedman actually said "show your work," but it seems rather clear that the result was at best a 50% grade.
Understanding why knowledge of computer programming correlates with success in the modern world is simple: it is a combination of the ubiquitous nature of computers in our society, and the underlying value of logical thinking that goes into the programming process. I didn't need the College Board to explain that to me.
The response concerning knowledge of the Constitution, however, is a hodge-podge of deflection and anecdote. The text of the US Constitution has very little relevance to "how government works" if you are an average citizen. It tells you nothing about state or local government, and it tells you nothing about the mountain of regulations and agencies that are the dominant part of modern federal government. It might have been more honest to say that high school classwork focused on the practical structure and operation of modern government is very important, but that wouldn't have allowed for this catchy "two codes" headline.
In the end, this sounded like one of those click-bait ads on the internet, luring us in with the "two secret tricks" to succeed.
4
Having programmed or otherwise used computers for 60 years, I question the need to learn how to "program" computers.
We do need to know how to use applications including writing and email, but how much do we need to write a program in C or whatever code language is the rage now. Few of us will even need to write a spreadsheet.
Probably the most important skill is to figure out how the latest version of your operating system or any other programs will work. I have seen over and over that the latest designers have to change the latest version to their way of thinking.
5
Civics, including the Constitution, needs to get back into required education. Not just rote memorization of the Preamble, but the concepts that Founders wanted embodied. "Checks and Balances" being a big one to prevent dictators.
"computer science" or "programming"? The former is a deep understanding of systems and concepts. The latter is a perishable skill as languages fall out of favor (except perhaps COBOL extinction resistant as massive business libraries still depend on it ) as new architectures permit more powerful languages and constructions.
Unfortunately the increased power of hardware masks poor programming. Looking into a simple business letter in Word finds thousands of characters of code that does nothing. Such as BoldON followed by BoldOFF with nothing in between. This leads to bloated documents, requiring more storage, more backup media etc.
We need people in both, but "programming" is not a lifetime golden path.
3
Excellent idea. Now how about suggesting that Rep. Ilhan Omar should have to pass a class in the US Constitution. None of this will save us in the end if we load up Congress (and, indeed, our nation) with people who have no respect for, no liking for, but just enough smarts to use against us, our most important principles of representational democracy and decent civic behavior.
4
BINARY CODE Is the basis for all computer processing. Series of zeroes and ones, 0s and 1s. When I have explained the basic and universal concept of computers, I walk over to the wall and turn the lights on and off, explaining that when the switch is off, there is no current running though the wires to the lights, and that 1 shows that there is current running through the wires to the lights. True, it's a very rudimentary explanation. But not a bad place to start with young kids or people who have never attempted to learn what it is that computers do. About making the AP courses more inviting, I believe that there is evidence that the presentation of coursework includes gender and ethnic metamessages. Females tend to ask, Do you like me yet; while males tend to ask, Have I won yet. Deborah Tannen, Sociolinguist, writes about the gender related metamessages that we use unconsciously, in her book, You Just Don't Understand. I highly recommend it. These differences may be hard-wired to some extent. Daniel Goleman writes about them in his book, Social Intelligence where he explains why females respond differently from males to intimacy. Tannen would say that females seek to form bonds, while males tend to compete. What about transgender? That should work just fine, perhaps research will show that transgender persons show a mixture of female and male characteristics in the metamessages contained in their conversations.
1
I agree that understanding the First Amendment is critical to being a responsible citizen of our country, as well as being familiar with the basic elements of the Constitution as a whole.
On the other hand, and as a software developer myself, the idea that how to code a computer is a critical skill seems a bit ludicrous to me. Aside from software developers and those in the computer industry, the ability to code seems as relevant to one's success in their chosen field as the ability to stand on one's head.
A good computer program is nothing more than a representation of solid critical thinking (logic) in the form of instructions for a computer to execute. If logic and complex thought can be taught and are not inherent aspects (or even the definition) of one's intelligence, then a course covering those subjects would seem a more direct route to mastery of same.
6
After reading the comments I agree that the corporate power of the AP College Board should be controlled and taxed.
However, I am still happy that they added knowledge of OUR U.S. Constitution and computer coding to important things in education.
I do not think they said those two things take precedence over reading, writing and basic math - one cannot achieve the new two without mastering the core education tools.
"What can we do to help replace the jeering with productive conversation?’” How about critical thinking, some understanding of philosophy and rhetoric, a basic understanding of economics and psychology, and fundamental mathematical literacy? Knowing something about how computers work doesn't contribute in this whole arena of life and human interactions. And pairing this with knowledge of the U.S. Constitution? You mean the way it was supposed to work in the 18th century? Or the way in which it's been bent and abused since then? I find myself hard pressed to identify two "codes" less useful for "success in college and in life." I think they both set you up for a lot of dissatisfaction and disappointment.
2
Did I overlook a definition of "success in life?"
Suppose my goals are global and humanitarian, rather than wealth and popularity. Is knowledge of the constitution still a keystone? Or would it not be better to be exposed to human suffering around the world (e.g, starvation in Yemen) and efforts to reduce it? Would it not be better to learn the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and about the evolution and limits of human rights in the contemporary world? Would it not be better to learn that we are all global citizens first, citizens of our respective nations secondarily?
6
I could not agree more. The rampant misunderstanding of the Constitution is a constant impediment to securing our democracy. I would add to the Constitution, the portion of the Declaration of Independence that so clearly defines the principals upon which our democracy is founded.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"
The power of the people to rule is justified by their consent to set aside their rights, rights that they retain, for the purpose of promoting the common good. In the same manner that a king might, at his pleasure, lend his all encompassing rights to do anything, the people of the US, lend their unalienable rights so long as the government does not abuse those rights. Like a king, they set aside their rights for the good of their country but at any time reserve the right to take them back.
I’m going to start with my cynicism. This is quite clearly a ploy to sell new prep courses and materials. The college prep industrial complex cannot abide old materials being useful.
And now I’m going to rant against the insistence on coding as a valuable skill for the future as ridiculous neo-liberal hogwash. Will work in the future be more technologically involved? Yes. Need all the people in the world need to learn how to write computer code to further enrich the tech oligopolies? No. The farmers displaced by technology didn’t all go into manufacturing farm equipment, just like the displaced truckers won’t write driverless car algorithms. We ought to be teaching the youth to make a more humane world rather than pushing them to arcane technological pursuits.
8
I disagree with the premise that only these two subjects are important. History is a must because those who don’t know it are destined to repeat it, it gives context; Literature and writing are important because they broadens our horizons as well as enabling us to express ourselves; science and math are important for the doctors who care for us, the researchers who cure us, the list goes on. We should be trying to broaden our knowledge, not limit it to two categories. In fact the focus on technology has limited our knowledge, are students dropping history in favor of CS? are they dropping English literature for CS? Are they on Instagram more than they are reading a good book? We need to make sure we have an abundance of educational experiences and knowledge that provides the context for both the Constitutional and the digitized world we live in and gives us a broader appreciation of human history and all of the many enriching aspects of life in general.
4
As much as you can annoy my soul that leans to the right, I think this is masterful and timely. I believe your pen will do much more to improve society if your work has this kind of focus instead of political invective. May God bless your Better Angel.
1
Ok, so SAT scores will be further weighted in favor of students who can afford to take an exam for classes that aren't offered in every school. #facepalm
1
“Understanding how government works is the essence of power...”
Perhaps I’m just overly cynical, but I would have sworn that the ‘essence of power’ had something to do with an understanding of mathematics.
There is also a fairly easy argument to be made regarding the futility of memorizing a written document, without first having an etymological understanding of the language in which it was composed.
Having graduated from college as computer programming was just beginning, I benefited greatly from learning that skill. But since a computer is only a tool, only a few need to learn programming skills, just like auto mechanics. The power is learning how to USE the software tools - spreadsheets, databases, image manipulaton, animation, information searches and more. That's been the power I've helped others acquire and see it open their world.
Writing an app means you've learned a new language, but using that app means you've acquired power.
2
While these recommendations look plausible on paper, and perhaps can promote success, here are my problems with the prescription.
Not everyone can or want to shape the world, just their own life. Not everyone one wants to code, some would like to cook!
Our best education so far has given us this world. Only the top 1% would say this is great. It is not, for the bottom 90%!
If you have noticed, our world is changing, always has been. Technology cut blue collar jobs, now it is cutting white collar jobs, and with AI, forget self driving cars taking away even more jobs, we have come close to second guessing physicians!
If we take this all the way, one would think the goal of technology is to remove all jobs! And you know what, left to it's own devices, it will. Enough jobs to cause social unrest or worse. Add climate change and we have a storm brewing. No pun intended.
The French were always at the vanguard, starting with the revolution and the yellow vests may be the tip of that iceberg that is growing!
What we really need are values that tell our kids it's better to have a thousand millionaires than a single billionaire. That we will all be successful together or perish. We are already beginning to feel the pain.
Unfortunately our capitalists can't see beyond the next quarter and our politicians, beyond the next poll.
3
Thank You, Mr. Friedman, for this wonderful information. Things like this give me great hope and conviction that WE THE PEOPLE are making great strides to restore/preserve true democracy in OUR United States of America.
Thanks, also, to leaders of the College Board, David Coleman, president and Stefanie Sanford, its chief of global policy, for their foresight in what it will take for young people to succeed in this great country.
A much needed, very hopeful sign that is sorely needed right now.
2
In any school system, wealthy or poor, private or public, a "code" to learn is do the assignment the teacher has given you. Maybe even just really try to do the assignment; try to complete it. To survive and thrive, one must do, something, to start the process to learn. It is remarkable how many students "blow off" some/all assignments.
Of course, the age-old challenge in education has always been how to reach and teach so many different abilities within some type of organized system. (e.g. why do kids blow off assignments?)
But a child who cannot do that first assignment will not understand the codes of our Constitution and computer science, let alone so many other wonderful things to learn.
God bless every teacher who is really trying to reach her students. We all know that very few teachers are really paid enough to help make all the differences we seem to want.
1
The College Boards have always been promoted with the claim that they establish a correlation between a student's test results and the likelihood of his/her success in college. It seems to me to be a rather ground-shaking change to now become concerned with "success in life" instead, and to weight the exam questions with that in mind. And while I get the importance of understanding the Constitution, for the College Boards to over-weight the skills necessary to be successful doing computer coding seems to me to be unjustifiably narrow.
2
There used to be something called "Civics Class" for every student, not just those college-bound...It was liberal, ever-more-Progressive educational philosophy, with all its intersectional grievances, that eradicated it. This elitist take on higher education seems retrograde--and not much help to generations lost.
2
Sometime in your 20s take a year or two, pack up your fears in a backpack and let the road decide your fate. Cast yourself into the winds, the cities, the mountains and the seas. You’ll have many fewer regrets when you are old.
2
History and civics have been slacking off for decades in American schools. When I was in hs we didn't graduate if we didn't pass the US history/civics class that was mandatory for us. The consequence is a populace that doesn't know when they are being snowed by an ignorant/amoral president. How can we protect our republic when 30-40% can't recognize a domestic threat, to say nothing of a high-tech foreign threat?
4
I do not use the words I need to respond to this Friedman column. I know the codes and America was left in the dust when the sophist par excellence Antonin Scalia joined the Supreme Court and computers started using analog algorhymns and fractal mathematics instead of simple binary states.
I try very hard to provide my own unique perceptions as should everybody to try and arrest America's decline even as I realized long ago the rescuing of America from itself is as likely as winning the jackpot in a lottery I enter once every two years.
Samuel Johnson gave us English as a language of communication and the first English dictionary in 1755. It is the English which has evolved for two and a half centuries and it is the English the founders used to write your founding documents. It is not the language of lawyers and sophists it is the language of everyday and every occasion. It is not sacred or holy ; It expresses the ethics and values America was to celebrate as it evolved. Dr Johnson gave us an understanding of poetry and prose and your founders used his dictionary to give the USA its meaning.
America is a binary State in a world that needs balance and unless real change is made it has no future. Our only legitimate hope is that when America crashes into the 21st century the tsunami doesn't destroy us all.
3
Mr. Friedman always writes something I think is important, but he writes "Facebook was abused...". No! I think he should have writ Facebook was abusive. If you don't think Zuckerberg knew what was going on and knew he was making fabulous dollars because of it, you will soon be contacted by real estate brokers with offices in Brooklyn about a bridge
2
If we look for conspicuous role models that support the “coding and Constitution” hypothesis, what do we find?
Donald Trump doesn’t understand the U.S. Constitution, yet he is President of the United States. The gun lobby uses the Constitution to defend its indefensible support for the continued sale of assault rifles. Mark Zuckerberg probably understands computer science better than few others, yet he created a social tool that has been used by foreign entities to corrupt a national election. And today he is worth over 60 billion dollars. (No fair! He can’t control how others use his platform! I beg to differ.)
Trump, the gun lobby, and Zuckerberg are outliers, granted, but they missed something important in their education: learning ethical behavior. There is no code for that, nor is there an A.P. exam that assesses it.
4
Yeah, if you learn how to drive you can run a cab. But not the cab agency.
1
Are you kidding? Coding? In a few short years this is going to seem like learning physical type-setting with wood blocks. It's going to be done by bots on the Moon. Our kids are going to do jobs that have not been invented. Everyone needs critical thinking, written and spoken communication expertise, and basic science and math skills, with technical no-how picked up as needed along the way, so they can figure out how live and work in the future.
8
What's with this obsession about success? And why should success be only measured in terms of accrued wealth?
Stop measuring self-worth in terms of income or promotions. For the country that gave the world "Those who can't do, teach.", education is simply not respected. Why should public university gov't support be reduced? Why should a kid's ZIP code determine his career prospects? Why is there palpable apathy toward those who take up teaching as a profession? These structural defects deserve far more attention.
At my university where I'm a research student, they recently demolished a building of tremendous historical value to erect a second building for the burgeoning Computer Science department. It is morally wrong in choosing to earn millions in profits by televising student athletics and selling naming rights of campus buildings to the highest bidder. And the cost of tuition keeps going up higher than the rate of inflation.
Revered academic institutions are only cash cows, we are the marks. I've generally observed half the money acquired by a research group for a project through any funding source goes directly to the university's coffers. Quacks with MBAs have corrupted all pursuits by measuring them only in terms of cost and profit.
Education is a lifelong pursuit to live purposefully and with an intent to serve the public by continuously exploring and contributing to the knowledge base. Teach this to all children early and teach it frequently.
5
Finally an article about education and required exams that notes cramming for a test, then forgetting it. That has never been learning, just passing what is a meaningless test.
1
I agree Tom, and would add that students also need to learn and hone analytical skills and communication skills. I would recommend every high school student learn the principles of debate, whether in class or through school teams
A terrific set of concepts. Unfortunately I think this is a case of preaching to the choir and further re-enforces the divide in our country. Why is it only available at the AP level? And why so late in the educational development of our children?
1
There will always be a need for auto mechanics, plumbers, electricians and many others who still work with their hands. Too much emphasis is being put on computer science. Who do you think is going to come out in the snow and fix your furnace in February?
4
Your child’s high school determines what courses to offer. Commenters saying why not offer a class in civics or computer science need to talk to their school board. The change in computer science offering is interesting because it reflects my own career, now retired. I learned just enough coding to be dangerous. The more important skill is understanding how code solves business problems. Those problems can be in arts, finance, manufacturing, distribution, and all kinds of interests. Turning a problem into a requirement and then quickly evaluating if the code met the requirement is critical on every project from writing a simple algorithm to figure area under a curve to setting up national health exchanges.
I firmly believe the grossly incompetent project managers for the Affordable Care Act, including the civil service executives, could have benefited from such a course earlier in their careers because they obviously had no competence in managing requirements. Based on the subsequent investigations, they violated every single good practice of managing large projects, practices that applied whatever you wanted the insurance plan to be. Who knows? They were probably good coders. Being a good coder is the easy part. It is hopeful that SAT finally recognized it.
1
On the other hand, if you want to enjoy and get the most out of life...be honest, be kind, be a good listener, work diligently at whatever you do, learn how to be a good partner and friend, don't be a complainer, be an engaged citizen, and learn as much as you can about art, music, dance, movies, literature, theatre, natural history, spend as much time in nature as you can, and always have a dog, preferably a Golden Retriever.
5
Great...so now the company that we have to pay for our kids to take the SAT, and then pay again for our kids to re take the SAT, and then pay again for our kids to use their Common Application (with a separate fee for each college..just to check a box) and then pay again to have our kids take their AP exams, and then pay again to have said SAT scores and AP scores sent to each college...
Is saying all our kids really needed to learn was 9th grade Civics, and introduction to computers.
I want my money back.
7
As an engineer who has taken computer science courses, worked and programmed in the computer industry, and later as a lawyer with a working knowledge of the Constitution and its interpretation by the courts, I find Friedman's and the College Board's position to be just wrong. I find many, if not most of the comments, to be much closer to the truth.
Rather than comment on what I believe should be emphasized, I note the almost complete absence in the comments of support for learning a foreign language as being important. I agree with that lack of support. With all of the skills and knowledge desirable for intellectual and vocational success today, the study of a foreign language that will probably never be used again is not a wise choice.
3
@George Carlson - Yes, all those speakers of other languages in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America will just have to learn and speak English. [sarcasm]
I took French and Latin in high school and found that, although I never became proficient in either, the study improved my English language skills. And that was very helpful on my SAT (99th percentile) and in my profession.
1
The title is "the two codes your kids need to know". But after reading this piece, I still do not know which two codes my kids need to know. I opt for python and for good measure C++?
2
We are going to miss the liberal arts, which, by the way, gave rise to our Constitution and the math and logic of computer science.
3
The College Board got it right by focusing on skills AND knowledge.
For close to three decades, educators at secondary and post-secondary have increasingly promoted skills over knowledge, with objectives achieved through modules. The result is highly, but narrowly, trained graduates who are largely ignorant of how the world works, of human history, of culture and society.
I believe that we need both to have an engaged citizenry and functioning democracy. There’s a reason Trump loves the poorly educated!
1
Why should students bother learning the Constitution since the last President to even slightly honor its strictures was Teddy Roosevelt?
Undeclared wars, standing armies, the surveillance state, debased fiat currency, 4,000 federal crimes (there are a total of three crimes listed in the Constitution), crushing regulations, trillion-dollar deficits, "free speech zones", and on and on.
3
Too bad our President knows neither.
1
What a load of rubbish. Mr. Friedman's friends are running a business and like all business people they are always trying out new products. Mr. Friedman appears to have swallowed their marketing pitch whole. He should be more discriminating.
I can assure you that hundreds of millions of people outside the US get by perfectly well knowing nothing about the US constitution and they also know next to nothing about computer programming. This is probably true for more than 300 million people in the US itself.
7
I realize that one of Friedman's hallmarks is jumping on bandwagons without first thinking about unintended consequences. But this is plain silly. The College Board decides that something is more important than something else, so it makes that something else part of the curriculum of the most rigorous schools. It then tests for it and makes it easier for those who did well in the curriculum to be admitted to the "best" schools.
We all know that knowing about computer science (at a high level) is important if you are going to do well in computer science as a career. It's also important to have an understanding of the directions that computer science is going. But saying that everyone needs to code at a high level is like saying in 1910 that knowing how a car works is crucial to driving one. In some sense, yes (the brakes on a car are different from the brakes on a horse) but the vast majority of people who drive cars successfully know less than zip about the internal operation of a car.
As for the Constitution, this is a joke, right? We have just elected a man as president who knows less than nothing about the Constitution or governing or even business. There are already millions of Americans who know more about the Constitution than the Dimwit Demagogue in Chief. What we need is a desire to have smart and honorable people in office. Just knowing about the Constitution isn't enough. You also have to believe in it. That's where we are failing.
6
Becoming computer literate is no doubt crucial in simply navigating through a world of automation and computer-generated, and managed, services. Today's kids are learning that through a sort of intellectual, and experiential, osmosis. Does that mean a career in computer science?
I refer to an interview from about 20 years ago or so, when the gifted journalist, David Gergen, interviewed a Harvard MBA professor for an episode of PBS's McNeil/Lehrer New Hour. In their discussion on student preparation for the real world of a career, the professor offered, and I paraphrase here,"When I speak with high school and college students about careers, [and reflecting on past economic recessions],I must tell them to prepare themselves for the possibility of a 'life of careers' instead of a 'career for lift."
What the professor further pointed out was, the need for a well-rounded liberal arts education before deciding on a specialty. The reason being, the liberal arts degree will prepare those students for the intellectual ability to adjust their careers, if needed, as the economy changes business models and thus, hiring needs, of the employers.
Indeed, the computer sciences will offer career opportunities to develop the tools that will be needed in countless industries. From medical technology to the exploration of the universe. Technology will be needed to make food production for efficient. The list of tech career paths is endless.
But start with understanding humanity first.
5
In the future, everyone will spend their lives writing Javascript and studying the Constitution. Poverty will end, cancer will be cured, and all the jobs that interest boys like will be held by girls.
It's amazing how simple things become when you put your mind to it!
7
We seem to be witnessing yet another Educational Fad. The notion that knowledge of two "codes" is sufficient is absurd on its face.
6
I spent some time reading through the first 394 comments posted in response to this article. I found out that my belief and feelings regarding the "two-codes" were similar to many of the comments out there.
How did the college board leaders totally dismissed the value of adding moral and ethics code, human behavior code, communications code, relationship management code, problem solving code, decision making code...
And in summary where is the code that develop grit, resilience and life skills to manage their emotional well-being? With an increase in teen suicides, school shooting, depression and anxiety, leaders in education fail to integrate high quality programs that serve as a foundation to human relationship.
Yale’s most popular class ever is “Happiness.” Is this a clue to what our students need? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/nyregion/at-yale-class-on-happiness-draws-huge-crowd-laurie-santos.html
4
February 13, 2019
Our government is STEMP committed with access to computer libraries at schools and public availability for each student to enjoy the fields of studies in our fantastic electronic information age - all this creates the best education for all levels of education to pursue life long an with and eye to professional goals one would acquire by self interest and creativity.
STEM Education Coalition - Official Site
www.stemedcoalition.org
STEM Education Coalition to Join Landmark White House Gathering of Nationwide STEM Leaders. James Brown, Executive Director of the STEM Education Coalition, was recently invited to attend the first-of-its-kind State-Federal Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education Summit hosted by The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on June 25-26, 2018, in …
It may be that mastery of these two subject areas could play a role in offsetting the widely held belief that zip code is destiny.
These are frameworks on which to hang what we -- or at least our youth -- need to master to become knowledgeable, fact based critical thinkers, to succeed in our careers and in life, to move beyond any strictures that early childhood environment and experiences may have placed on those who were not fortunate enough to have started life in the "right" zip codes.
2
According to Thomas and his friends: “any young person who can master the principles and basic coding techniques that drive computers and other devices “will be more prepared for nearly every job,” “
Of course, if you learn how to code, you can do the coding required by a job requiring coding skills. That doesn’t take you very far in grasping what the job really implies. No more than learning to type enables you to write a play.
4
Tom, the College Board is a money making pseudo-academic organization. Their choice of computer science is not a stroke of genius, just an awareness of where jobs and money are today. As for US constitution, they are wrapping themselves in the flag. Their undue influence in High school environment is disturbing and disruptive. They are swindling students and parents, legally.
10
@SB
Completely agree! You hit the nail on the head with this comment. I think we parents of high schoolers can see through this.
1
Interesting method for sparking a community dialogue in your column Mr. Friedman !
On my first read, I did not find myself latching onto your point as I usually do with your columns for many years now.
Of course, "the Two Codes" are very important and I would put a more important emphasis on learning our Constitution.
Coding is probably as important as learning to type as I did way back in the early 60's.
But knowledge of our Constitution and Coding - alone, does not make for a well-rounded successful person.
I dove into the "Comments" and then the real fun began.
You created a platform for a community discussion which needs to be addressed on a more frequent schedule.
After absorbing a fair amount of Comment Feedback I realized what was happening and re-read your column - this time smiling.
I am still taking college courses for my profession and have been of "Medicare Age" for a few years now.
I work along side Freshman and listen to their stories.
The "gate-keepers" for getting into a good school have certainly not made it easy and I have long wondered if "the right courses" were being taught in High School.
I also became painfully aware of how little these students actually understood our Constitution and how it applied to being successful as well as to daily life.
As for the coding, I think everyone should know "some" - but there are so many other studies which are needed to make a "Whole Person" -
Leaving out Humanities - Well - We have robots for that !
2
AP classes should not be the test of what all students should know and be able to do when they graduate! Only some students take AP, and the courses are not necessarily for everyone (like computer science). Instead of AP, wouldn't it be nice if the College Board came up with some senior synthesis courses that suggested what every student should know and be able to do? A government course that includes a working knowledge of the Constitution would certainly be on my list. But coding for everyone? Why? How about a strong American and world history and current events course that focuses on America's heroes, diversity, pioneering spirit, slavery, foreign policy, and current issues (to name a few). How about assuring that students had a strong background in science concepts and especially how science investigates and tries to identify the "truth" (with an emphasis on every student creating an original experiment?) How about an understanding of fine arts and great music? How about mathematics as problem solving and how to analyze quantitative data in a big data world? How about a love of reading? How about an inquiring mind for lifelong learning? How about all students know how to do research and detect bias? How about critical and creative thinking? I'm sure that we could come up with others and develop a framework for what needs to be known for success and for life in a 21st century world. Tom Friedman might try his hand at this, too, and then suggest it to the College Board.
2
For a very long time, I have been of the opinion that compulsory political service (no less than 2 years, no more than 10) should be part and parcel of every young person's education.
1
OK, two variables strongly correlate with a trend in "success", but I'd guess "success" for the College Board means *college grades*, not societal impact, a healthy family, professional distinction, income/wealth or other measures of "real life success". Do a replace all of the word "success" with "college grades" in this essay and you will see this is an overblown analysis. As a university professor that knows nearly 3 decades of alumnae, never once have college grades been how actual alumnae defined "success" for themselves.
2
A.P. stands for advanced placement: Not all high school students are accepted into AP classes. Let's democratize the experience and open these classes up to all who are curious.
2
@gary
The AP curriculum demands much more than curiosity. These are rigorous classes and those that are not ready for the rigor grow frustrated and shut down. Trust me, 20 years of teaching AP Euro I have seen the disaster of the unprepared curious student just stop trying about week 4. It is unfortunate, but AP must be selective.
That the SAT is emphasizing our founding documents, and the necessity for IT knowledge, as preparation for the future is forward-thinking and necessary.
Since 2017, the current Administration and Congressional Republicans have ignored their Constitutionally described job descriptions.
As a result, we now face a Republican-controlled Senate, prepared to let a President, disdainful of law, order and the Constitution, cruise through the budget and reallocate money as he wishes to fund a wall unwanted by the majority of Americans.
The Condtitution's Article I states that Congress is in charge of our borders, our immigration policy, the budget, and troop deployment -- not the President. Each of these policies must be voted on. The Legislature is to check an unreasonable Executive.
Congress has not voted on Trump reallocating funds for his wall, or his sending troops to the border. His doing so is unconstitutional.
Congress, before the mid-terms, merely followed Trump's orders, ignoring their oath to serve all Americans or check the Executive, leading to their signature tax break for the rich.
If everyone knew our founding documents, they could spot the glaring Conditutional breaches of Trump and his Republican allies. They count on Americans' ignorance to advance harmful agendas.
With international hacking of our cyber-systems, and future careers dependent on robotics and AI, IT is imperative.
Knowledge brings power. With it, we can prepare and fight back.
3
This reminds me of conversations that I and my aging colleagues have had about education over the last two decades: the demise of Civics, practical math skills, and foreign languages. Civics almost disappeared. Kids got to high school with fifth grade math skills. Most chose not to take a foreign language. The "two codes" seem to take on two of these directly, math and Civics, computer science (math as apps) and The Constitution (Civics at its heart). So, Kudos to whomever saw the light. The College Board? Tom Friedman? Well done!
2
I love computers, but I'm kinda at a loss as to how coding will help with the creative arts. At most, you do need to know how to use the software related to your field (Final Cut Pro/Final Draft for moviemakers; any word-processing sw for writing, for example.) But unless you are also going to design industry software, why learn to code?
2
The primary purpose of k-12 education should be to prepare people to become good citizens: to know their civil rights and responsibilities; to know how their government works; to know how financial systems work; to know how people work and live; to know what's healthy and how health care works.
We should measure success of our systems not with some test score, but by reviewing how many of our kids become productive members of society at age 25.
1
I taught AP European History (College Board) for 19 years. AP is not a one size fits all deal. The good students would take 8-11 AP classes and become college sophomores on day one at college. But the good students would also know that patterns expected in the AP world. The College Board tests all follow a basic pattern: AP tests, SAT, MCAT etc. So there is the advantage of simply learning how to take a College Board type test.
In defense of AP, at least in the social studies area, the new teats designed by the College board require a type of teaching that stresses critical writing and thinking skills. (Contextualization being my favorite) I've had students return from college and say that their college classes are easier than their high school AP classes. But more impressively, that the studying and writing skills learned in AP high school classes put them ahead of their college peers. That alone is worth the $90 paid for the AP test.
One more thought. I also was hired by the College Board to grade AP essays and that lead me to two conclusions. 1) Too many unprepared students are taking AP classes and 2) there must be many AP teachers who shouldn't be... based on the large amount or poor essays.
3
There is no question that much progress has been made in improving equity in AP CS. But the figures cited here paint a falsely optimistic picture of how far we still have to go and I’m a bit surprised that Tom let this slip in his piece.
In 2017, AP CS still had the lowest ratio of female test takers of any CS exam (by contrast most AP exams have more female takers than males). The percentage of students of color taking the exam remains in the single digits in too many states and zero in several. Zero.
A detailed visual analysis can be found here: http://home.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/599
The National Science Foundation (aka the taxpayers) has funded much of the effort to study the problem and try to fix it. As many of the other comments here suggest, it does raise the question of why the College Board should have a monopoly in this space and be profiting from it.
2
The basic notion that led to computer science is that of computability which centers on the idea of an algorithm (and there are functions that are not computable, though one can mistakenly believe that one has an algorithm to compute one). What troubles me is the deep misunderstanding of what is an algorithm among the general population. Listening to people talk about Facebook et al and their algorithms, one begins to believe that algorithms are magic formulas. I would suggest that people need to learn just what is an algorithm. Steven Cole Kleene's canonical example was long division. That is not magic. None of the others are magic either, and there is no reason to believe that those touted by Facebook compute what Facebook believes they compute.
A very old book, Computability and Unsolvability by Martin Davis (1958) addresses these issues clearly and concisely and is as up to date as one needs for a basic understanding. Start there instead of with a test based on what is likely a misunderstanding by a committee on SAT testing.
4
Whatever else comes up as being important for success in college and life, I'd like to add two other skills: problem solving and communication. After a lifetime of university teaching, I'd predict that a student with those abilities can learn about computers as required, and can discuss the Constitution too.
4
But, the article doesn't really "show the work". What is the evidence that these two codes are correlated with success? Arguments were presented about why these codes are important, but no evidence was presented about the actual correlation with success. And, of course, what is the definition of success.
4
Meanwhile, what passes for thinking and understanding continues to erode.
4
Our president, Donald Trump, doesn't know, or care to know,
anything about either. code. He want to write his own. It is so sad for our country.
My son just graduated with a computer science degree. He is going on to his masters in design/technology/business at the USC school Dr. Dre & Jimmy Iovine founded.
He never took that silly SAT test.
But the article is accurate - he'll also be working at a six figure tech job with unlimited off time while getting his masters.
(PS - on my SAT's I put down an ethnicity different than mine and filled in the No.2 pencil answers with a design on the page - didn't read one question!) I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!
Regarding ‘computer coding’ as a ‘need to know’ ... nonsense. There’s a lot written to refute this ‘know to code’.
The Constitution should be taught in elementary school, right through to a High School ‘Constitutional Law’ class. My mom carried the ‘Pocket Constitution’.
(I can recite the Preamble, learned from Saturday morning ‘School of Rock’ cartoons!)
2
The College Board is nothing more than a Capitalist tool to keep certain groups from ever getting ahead, a way to make money, and to perpetuate class. It was like that when i was a kid in the 1960's and I doubt if it is any different today.
4
Shouldn't the Government and Politics course also be available to those students not in AP? Everyone should be exposed to knowledge about how our system works--and other systems as well.
4
As a former Instructor in Western Civilization at the University of Kansas--and a sometime graduate student at the University of Chicago--I'm not sure I entirely agree with this assessment. And I forgot to add that in my older years I 've done a lot of substitute teaching in public schools. I discovered children who are fantastically adept at swimming around the cloud, but who are woefully ignorant of their own and foreign languages, who couldn't spell their way out of the proverbial paper sack. Youngsters who care nothing for anything but the ability to get around and through technology. I used to tell them that their own brains were the computers I was interested in, and that they needed to learn how to operate that system. Language, logic, truth and mathematics are and will be essential skills in every world the young people of any nation will ever inhabit. And, oh, yes, philosophy and history--and dare I say it, theology?--will be essential, too. Nobody can possibly know anything about the U.S. Constitution if he or she knows nothing about Greece, Rome, Medieval and Modern Europe--and the Jewish and Christian scriptures and religions. It's just that simple and complicated.
11
@David A. Lee
Mr Lee's points reinforce my feeling that this is a good article, despite the criticisms that have been voiced here. Regarding coding, 1) spelling and syntax are everything, as in languages, and 2) surely you don't get very far in coding without having to confront the question of setting a goal or a problem to be solved and planning the steps to do that. Both very good humanistic skills. Regarding the Constitution: you don't get very far without developing some knowledge of the historical context in which it was written and how it dovetails or doesn't with legal and political realities. Voila, political science, history, and, of course, language.
2
What about a High School class on everyday life. How to balance a checking account, buy a car, a house. How to invest in the stock market. How to save for retirement. Who to marry. How children affect your life. I'd rather be taught by experienced people than learn by trial and error.
And, you can avoid the AP all together by getting an AA degree in community college and then transferring to a four year college.
5
@Mickey McGovern, how to do taxes and use credit cards would help as well.
There is so much divorce and poor parenting in our society, we could use courses in Relationships, including marriage and parenting.
Also courses in Acting, including understanding others and ourselves, speaking in public, seeing long-term results. learning how actions affect others and living as an improvisation.
2
I'm not assured that a combined command of the principles of computer coding and familiarity with the words of the U. S. Constitution is going to provide someone with high-functioning knowledge skills- unless they've also obtained practical competence with informal logic, the detection of fallacies, and critical thinking. Learned as a set of principles that comprise the basis for clear and consistent thinking, not merely an optional skill set that can be turned on or off on a whim.
In the realm of critical thinking and the arena of debate, evidence abounds that most Americans- including many with top-rank educational pedigrees and high-status occupations- grew up doing bent-knee push-ups.
6
I agree about the Constitution, but I disagree about Computer Science. Certainly, we should teach every student how to use computers effectively. But Computer Science is on the long list of subjects where students need enough exposure so they understand what it’s all about and whether this is an interesting career path for them. But there isn’t enough room in the curriculum to go deeper.
As it is, we go too deep in a small number of subjects, when we should be going shallow in a larger number of subjects. The result is that we’re not exposing students to enough subjects to prepare them to choose interesting career paths. Far worse, we’re not teaching them the things they need to know in order to be good voters. A quick glance at the people we’ve sent to Washington should make that obvious!
Instead of trying to teach every student to be a Computer Scientist, we should be teaching them about economics, political science, and life skills.
5
Computer language coding is vastly more important for young U.S. students to learn than Spanish, French, and German combined. Not to diminish these others, but computer coding is just too central to our lives now.
There is also an ancillary benefit to the study of coding: because it's a discipline, it disciplines a young mind to have to learn it. Unlike at home when growing up, where you could color it any way you wanted, in coding you have to stay between the lines and be precise. There's no talking your way out of wrong input.
1
This article seemed a little misleading. It started with this description: "A few years ago, the leaders of the College Board, the folks who administer the SAT college entrance exam, asked themselves a radical question: Of all the skills and knowledge that we test young people for that we know are correlated with success in college and in life, which is the most important?" But it doesn't sounds like Coleman or Sanford bothered to look at correlations or any kind of empirical evidence. It sounds like they just chose two topics they THOUGHT were important, and now they are forcing them on a bunch of kids. Doesn't it seem like the randomness of the way that these two were chosen topics should be emphasized in the article? Doesn't the College Board have a responsibility to all of these kids to actually base things on data, since their actions help shape lives?
4
While of course it can be said that computer science and studying the constitution are important now... it could certainly be argued that there are many more important 'keys' to success in life. It is a complicated matter becoming truly 'successful', involving many factors/social, personal, financial, other... and having enough depth and range of particular and general knowledge, skills, talent, character, motivation and self-discipline. The article's premise is full simplistic.
3
Instead of 'The Constitution' how about 'Capitalism, Politics, and how the Game is Fixed.'
If they're old enough to take AP tests, they're old enough to know the truth...
8
Another column from Friedman on his favorite panacea, learning to code. (I do appreciate that he's thrown in some material on the Constitution and a sop to the humanities this time.) This article reminds me of a recent story on state universities phasing out non-STEM disciplines such as history. Perhaps Mr. Friedman should recall how many of the 9/11 perpetrators had engineering backgrounds. A STEM degree and an education in coding may certainly give individuals a leg up in the economy but it we ignore the humanities and disciplines like history at our peril.
7
We also need to teach financial literacy in high school.
6
Enjoyed Thomas Friedman's column and it sounds like not only young Americans but all of us could benefit from knowing about the 14 Supreme Court cases and 9 documents referenced in his column,
Would appreciate information fromMr. Friedman or his staff where this can be found,
Thank you,
Jim Franklin
[email protected]
3
Wait a minute. Doesn't this article mix apples and oranges?
I thought "AP" meant "Advanced Placement"; i.e., a satisfactory grade for a particular AP class in high school would result in credit for a particular college level course at a secondary institution which recognized such grades as satisfying the requirements for that particular course. How does credit for one or two particular courses equate to a whole philosophy of education? (Unless the AP curriculum is being reduced to two subjects only: the Constitution and computer science.)
1
Despite being long past my high school days, I very much wonder about the content in that AP US Government and Politics coursework. We have a dearth of understanding of civics and the Constitution; while this course will help more dedicated students, we still need something substantial for those kids who don't take that course.
4
This would be a great notion if money grew on trees and you only needed the right skills to pick it. Alas, eventually somewhere down the line you need cheap labor to generate wealth, and it won't be long before writing code becomes a form of cheap labor or before code learns how to write itself. At which point, good ideas, driven creativity--something Americans are particularly good at--will continue to define success in this world.
3
As a sometime visitor to the National Archives, I have been inspired to see the original Constitution and Bill of Rights on display. However, they are almost impossible to read in that space, due to the low lighting and the (to our eyes) overly ornate quality of the writing. That is a waste.
Since so many Americans go there to look at the documents as tourists, it would be a great service if the text could be displayed in clear writing on a poster so that those visitors could easily read for themselves what those documents actually say. There is certainly plenty of wall space where such a thing could be tastefully posted.
I have written to the Archives folks with this suggestion, but received no response (or action). Perhaps, with your public pulpit you could help make this very doable fix happen?
4
Mr. Friedman,
I think you need to work on your epistemology. Anti-vaccination proponents are receptive to opinions that support their position. Your fascination with computers and programming may lead you to recognize merit in an agenda in support of your beliefs.
I hope college does not become just a trade school. To be educated is to seek answers to the questions: Who am I? How do I live?
The answer is to find context through science, math, history. To consider the answers offered in literature and philosophy that have been tempered by time. To gain the tools to approach our highest expressions in art with both mind and heart.
Seeking answers, not bumper sticker slogans, develops critical thought and teaches us to think and write in entire paragraphs.
Any learning that develops focus and breadth is not wasted. But I suspect critical thinking, writing and reading; and the focus they require, will be useful in the coming years when AI replaces the need for the coding skills you deem necessary as once was the ability to ride and care for a horse.
7
The SAT was a joke exam when I took it in 2012, and it sounds like it still is now. I would know: I went to an advanced high school where I became a college student at 16. These were not AP courses; I went to class with the college students, studied their material and took their exams. And did well. Since then, I've studied a variety of topics at three different schools/universities.
The SAT is not supposed to prepare you for life or work. It's supposed to show how well prepared you are to succeed in college. Otherwise we would be listing SAT scores on work resumes instead of submitting them with college applications. Knowing the basics of the Constitution or computer science don't have anything to do with how well you are ready to learn at the college level. Being able to read critically, write (i.e., think and communicate) clearly, and work with a certain basic set of quantitative skills is what is necessary to completing college requirements. Clearly, the authors of this expensive, exhausting exam have yet to find the best way to evaluate those skills.
5
@Claire This has nothing to do with the SAT - The article is about the revised curriculum for the AP Computer Science and Government classes. Critical reading skills.
1
I like this op-ed very much. I agree with the changes and the reason for them. Thank you for writing it and informing us.
How about some required basic civics education for ALL middle school and high school students? This would strengthen our democracy immensely by spreading the understanding of all First Amendment rights, including freedom of speech, assembly, petition, the press, and religion. All of these rights are misunderstood by vast swaths of the country, which weakens our country.
5
Hands down---this is great idea, yet with some twenty-five-plus years in teaching, it's always the kids, who play an instrument, can read music, play team sports, and do something in the arts: drama, painting, industrial arts, that have the concentration and perseverance to excel in any course. Along with STEM, let's add the A for 'arts,' so our kids can STEAM ahead. Finally, the SNS-distraction and the dis-imagination machine known as the smartphone present ever-addictive images when students would be better-off activating their own 'picture-making machines' (thank you Tolstoy) from words read and then humanly-processed for their own imaginative futures.
4
I've been writing computer code since 1970 and have a graduate degree in computer science and I couldn't disagree more with the notion that everyone needs to learn how to write computer code. People who are good at computer programming learn critical thinking skills and how to break down and solve problems. Those skills are important but can be taught other ways.
4
This is great. Now, let's change science courses. Instead of high school chemistry and physics consisting of students memorizing formulas they don't understand and don't know how to use let's make the basic question "How do we know?" the center of each course. How do we know how to launch a satellite or spacecraft? How do we know how to identify unknown chemicals in a substance? How do we know the universe is billions of years old? Let the students learn the math in the context of something meaningful!
5
The problem in HS is you can only go so far in science without knowing calculus, including differential equations. If you don’t know the math, you cannot really know the why. You just end up memorizing a different set of rules than are no more helpful than the ones they now memorize.
@Michael Blazin I did not say they should not know the math. I said the math should be taught in the context of the scientific principles, not simply as formulas to be memorized and forgotten.
All students should graduate with knowledge of computer science and the constitution. I firmly believe A.P. classes should be discarded. Students taking these classes will excel regardless. Spend the extra time and resources on average or struggling students.
4
Let’s do both. Extra resources for struggling and average kids, and challenging material for those that can handle it. Why limit learning for any child?
4
@tjscavone As the parent of a child with a high IQ - aka gifted I could not disagree with you more. Gifted kids don't do just fine in classes that don't provide them with challenges commensurate with their abilities. Assuming that your comments are borne of ignorance I would recommend you educate yourself on giftedness. SENG or Hoagies Gifted Education page are good places to start. A gifted person has an IQ at least 2 standard deviations upward from the mean - 130 - like the student with an IQ of 70 they have different needs. And they are just as deserving of having those need met.
@ROK
tjscavone says everyone should have access tp learning CS and Gov. There is no need for this to be AP only. If your very high IQ child wants to learn more in HS then they can take college classes and learn by extensive reading and research. They can even code the next great social media while still in HS. No one is stopping that. Plus, in High school it does not matter much if you are labelled "gifted" in elementary school. The "gifted" tag does not mean that the "ungifted" should not have less access to material that the author thinks is important for success.
2
Excellent. And let us not forget a third important skill that should be mastered somewhere along the way during one’s education: taste. Good taste helps one distinguish the great from the merely good, the real deal from the fraud. Without taste we are less able to back the right horse when it is most needed, or to identify who is worth following, which problem is worth solving.
AP Art History, anyone??
3
Rule 1: Pick the right parents.
Rule 2: Do the same for your kids.
5
I certainly agree with the importance of having a thorough knowledge of the Constitution and how government works. However, the idea that everyone should have a thorough knowledge of how computers work in order to have a successful life is idiotic. Technology was supposed to be a help and enhance people's lives. Now they want everyone to do their own coding and create their own apps. What a boring prospect. I don't want to live in a world where everyone is groomed to be a little worker bee who doesn't even see the roses, let alone stop to smell them.
The article tells us to be shapers of our environment and not just a victim. The conformists who turn themselves into little more than machines in order to enrich the people who rule them are the victims.
7
This testing service has always been used to screen out those who are not deemed worthy of a higher education.( the poor). Just another variant on the same old theme.
4
The testing service was set up to and still does identify people of modest means that can perform with the students from other, more wealthy environments. Do very well on an SAT, LSAT, GRE or GMAT and you can go to elite schools. To my knowledge, no other system can highlight a student that whether from finances or geography would never otherwise been on the radar screens for these schools.
When the College Board comes up with a way to teach young people to respect the right of others to be taken seriously, then I will take their conclusions seriously. The Constitution expressly did not respect that right, and America still dismisses the thoughts and opinions, the views and the contributions, the production and interpretations of those of us who do not seem to meet the assumed physical standards of our culture. The genetics that determine your physical structure should not have anything to do with the validity of your intellect or the value of your character.
As someone literate in IT but a few years out of school, I hope the term ‘code’ is shorthand for teaching a broader set of skills. Simply learning a programming language is less important, I think, than learning to design an app and understand the logic by which a problem can solved. Logical thinking (e.g., if this, then do that) is a skill that can be broadly applied to make the user more successful in life, and it is where I’d focus the attention.
This country suffers from a lack of critical thinking, and for the sake of our democracy, as well as for the life skills of the citizenry, it must be addressed in the educational system.
6
We need to educate ALL American children about the Bill of Rights, and especially the First Amendment--the foundation to representative democracy.
This includes a sound secular education for ALL children in private (e.g., religious) elementary schools and high schools. Students need to be able to think beyond their religious groups orthodoxy (whatever that orthodoxy is).
When the State fails to enforce laws requiring the sound secular education of children, the children's constitutional rights are violated, and the larger democracy and body politic harmed.
1
Would learning the code for the Constitution prepare students to appreciate the dangers of single-party rule of all three branches of government -- as the Republicans have enjoyed for the past 2 years -- and to evaluate the precedent set by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell when he flouted the Senate's constitutional duty to "advise and consent" regarding the nomination of Merrick Garland, or would they simply learn the mechanics of how our government is supposed to work?
In other words, would students learn about the necessity for respecting the democratic norms that are not written into the constitution itself, but are required for the government to function as the Founders intended it?
2
In articles like this it would be so helpful if you'd just open with the two codes, clearly and plainly.
I think this piece is ludicrous. As someone who had an IT position for many years who then became a lawyer by going to night school, I think I can say with some authority that Friedman is being overly simplistic and, simply, wrong. The ability to write and speak (in more than one language) are more important than coding and the Constitution, and the ability to read is even more basic. Students of today cannot engage in sustained reading and cannot write a discursive essay. I would ask high schoolers to read and discuss a work such as “War and Peace” before I would have them study the soul-deadening field of computer coding.
18
This article shows how out of touch SAT is/was with respect to computers. Having a test in only Java show their ignorance. IT is a very wide science and like verbal languages of the world has many disparate languages/vendues to learn.
I someone who worked in the software world since 1967, I don't think learning how to program is optional for everyone. I would rather have the kids of today totally functional of what the computer could do rather then be able to make it do so. I think logic and solid reasoning is a better skill then learning java or something equal.
1
On behalf of all the lawyers -- which 15 cases?
7
Can we drop the pretenses for just 5 minutes?
The SAT was created by Yale psychologists to combat the criticism that Ivy League Institutions were inherently biased in favor of rich WASP families and deliberately excluding intelligent kids from NYC raised by Ellis Island type immigrants.
The SAT actually IS socially biased in a manner to screen out all the flotsam and jetsam and allow only those underclass people in that meet our Upper Crust Society's criteria for membership in the "Club".
At Whatsamatta U, an SAT serves no purpose at all. 500?...1500? who cares? If you meet the minimum admission criteria....you get a shot at education.....but only if you can survive the grades.
Here again, our education system has determined to do social engineering as opposed to rigorous training of individual minds.
Which brings me to the definition of an American....
Four qualities...and you must have all four.
1. Judeo-Christian Work Ethic.
2. Rugged Individualism
3. Pioneer Spirit
4. Yankee Pragmatism
In the present day, our once Fantastic Public Education System has abandonned ALL reference to these four qualities.
2
All it took for me was three years working harvesting
crops, to pay my way to college prep school.
My folks had three other children besides me. We all payed
for our prep school, in like manner.
My mom used to say “they are no better than you!”
That work drove us.
93
The silliest notion I’ve seen in a long time!
2
Huh...this sounds bogus to me
A great education where you learn to learn is the key
4
You want two? Learn Chinese and Spanish.
1
I got my undergrad degree in Poli Sci with a semester on COn Law.
I worked 30 years programming on the IBM PC platform, and gradually became an integrator, building networks and buying the software instead of writing it.
That said, I still believe it is EQ (emotional aptitude) that trumps IQ in terms of success in organizations and leadership. Teach the children to know their own feelings and learn the feelings of others and they will rise at any endeavor.
5
Here Friedman goes again. His heart is in the right place but he can't get off the leg about how the tech world will save us if we all just drink enough Corporate-ade and spread the good news about Bangalore call centers as the pathway out of global poverty.
7
Another NY Times article to torment parents. Already stressed out, thanks.
4
Codes? You mean subjects to master, don't you?
1
Tech companies want everyone to believe they should drop everything else and train as code monkeys.
Why? Simple. To insure a massive oversupply of coding labor that will guarantee heavy downward pressure on labor costs.
Pay the monkeys as little as possible. Make them a dime a dozen, so you can hire them on short-term, no-benefits contracts, and replace them with other coding monkeys when a particular job is done.
Hold out the sweepstakes promise of “entrepreneurship” and VC money (already dried up) for “startups,” two mythologies to make the monkeys work even harder. Thank God It’s Monday, right? Arbeit Macht Frei, remember!
There’s a huge industry now built up around companies that supply cheap, temp labor for coding; these are the businesses your code monkey kids will report to.
Future coders will make about as much as Uber drivers; maybe less. They’ll breathe worse air, chained to their desks. Their hideous commutes will make them hesitant to ever go home.
The Future! Ain’t it grand? Maybe Bezos and our other “tech leaders” can use this slave labor to keep themselves safe from our future death as a species from climate change?
7
Did you read the op-ed? The new direction is specifically not to create a group of code monkeys.
The idea that studying our constitution will teach students "how our government works" is like telling students that reading romance novels will reveal the secrets of a happy marriage. As for computer science, it might be more useful to study small appliance repairs. Can Bill Gates write an algorithm for a family budget?
9
Of all the experts at your disposal, why, oh why, Thomas, would you seek the advice of pseudo-experts leading a multi-billion dollar testing empire, which for decades has been masquerading as a non-profit and has been exploiting our kids with tests that are demonstrably not even good predictors of success? Do you really think these profiteers have our young people’s best interests at heart when their bottom line is so clearly their priority?
14
Here's hoping that the Constitutional side of the coding is being taught properly.
Simply reading the 250-year-old, 4,000-word (4,000 more with the amendments) document is meaningless - if not actually dangerous - without understanding 18th Century American and British history.
An understanding of the cultural, economic and political factors which influenced the framers is essential. As are the compromises needed to secure ratification. Familiarization with works like the Federalist Papers, Ferrand's Records and the writings of Blackstone and Montesquieu are necessary to understanding the spirit, the "why", a document that was hammered out behind closed doors.
In the first lecture in the first college law class I took, the instructor held up a copy of the Constitution and said: This is not scripture. It needs context to be understood.
But yes, an understanding of the Constitution is more important now than any time since antebellum times.
2
Ok Tom, or your editors, why not provide your readers with the 15 Supreme Court cases as well as the nine foundational documents that every American should know.
How about some information.
4
Not sure either are the key to success as a physician.
9
Once upon a time...the late 1960s, the US public education system was the pride of Humanity...possibly the best education system in the history of mankind. We produced an army of engineers, lawyers, doctors, thinkers, and doers.
Then the teachers were allowed to unionize. We began the regimentation of the bureauracracy that ran the School system. School Districts represent the most powerful voting block in every corner of the USA....thus did education become politicized and MONETIZED....it became a gravy boat for politicians and administrators lusting for cash and power.
Next, we decided to centralize school facilities, building bigger and bigger containment facilities, abandonning local schools in favor of more de-humanizing, standardized, supermax type structures with metal detectors and lock downs and armed guards and ever more administrators that couldnt distinguish a kindergartner from a High school Junior....let alone what its name was.
And there we have it. America 21st Century. A nation of exceptional people. Here's yer trophy.
4
Perhaps someone has already addressed this question, but does the author or educators or any other reader have a suggested book to study the constitution and the amendments?
1
I did not have space in my previous post to mention that I took French from grade two to grade eleven. It was government-mandated in Canada back then.
All I learned was “Brrr, il fait froid!” (Brrr, it is cold!), and “Pitou mange le gateau” (Pitou—the family dog—ate the cake).
All we did was grammar tables in French class. Once it became an elective, I stopped taking it.
In retrospect, I should have taken advantage of a six-week summer program in St. Pierre and Miquelon. I would have enjoyed staying with a French-Canadian family and conversing in French all day. I could have learned about French-Canadian history and culture and fished for cod in my spare time.
Instead, I worked for five summers in a corrugated container company, starting at $2.75 per hour. All that advice about how this kind of work teaches you the value of an education is hogwash. I experienced the tedious drudgery and exhaustion of factory work and how difficult it was for some people to support their families. Youth are much better advised to spend their summers reading, playing sports, and conversing with intelligent mentors.
I would recommend to students that they try to pick up a language or two, especially via immersion, by traveling abroad. There is no better way to access another culture than by learning the language.
6
How ironic that the first job of the post-secondary school system appears to be suppressing each of the five freedoms delineated in the First Amendment! Stated differently, just about every college in America is vigorously preaching failure.
1
I've thought it would useful if the states would require passage of the US Citizenship test for high school graduation and/or for voting.
4
“What she remembered most, said Sanford, was how Jordan’s power ‘emanated from her command of the Constitution.’”
I doubt if this is true. Her command of the constitution might have been a necessary tool for effectively making use of her power, but the power itself emanated from Jordan’s personality. To think otherwise is to be a totalitarian.
5
"you need to know how computers work and how to shape them" while the goal is not actually what they teach in University comp-sci..
1
argumentum ad logicam
Two codes for "success in life"....well, not logically. Success is not well defined in the article and lots of other knowledge is needed as an input--even for the two codes.
4
Adlai Stevenson was allegedly told by a supporter "All thinking people are with you." He said "That's not enough. I need a majority."
1
Those two codes are good to know, but critical thinking is even more important.
6
Just yesterday, at lunch, I was sitting in Bojangles Fried Chicken Restaurant, listening to classical music in the PA system....and I overheard a table of physicists from the nearby college campus complaining, "Kids these days have no appreciation for quantum mechanics."
3
Tom, continuing on the theme of this article, please use your "pulpit" to advocate, strongly, for some ability to require candidates for National/Federal office (including the President, Vice-President, Cabinet-Level officers, and all members of the House and Senate) have to take and pass a test on the Constitution prior to taking an Oath of Office... Is anyone surprised that Individual-1 took an Oath to "preserve, protect, and defend" something he doesn't understand, even at a rudimentary level, and then blithely runs roughshod over it?
1
I think this article buried the lead with, "That said to students and teachers something the SAT had never dared say before: Some content is disproportionately more powerful and important."
Coding and the the constitution are great, but the huge improvement here seems to be emphasizing that content is equal to style and rhetoric. Instead of teaching students how to put drivel into a 5 paragraph hourglass essay with a counterargument and 3 supporting details, teach them to find something worth saying and put that into a structure that supports their argument.
2
If you could only choose two subjects I would choose history and economics.
2
Logic is a a much better course than programming for high school students; having a good grasp of logic, all, coders and non-coders, will have firm foundation on reasoning.
5
'In the original Computer Science course, which focused heavily on programming in Java, nearly 80 percent of students were men. And a large majority were white and Asian, said Coleman. What that said to women and underrepresented minorities was, “How would you like to learn the advanced grammar of a language that you aren’t interested in?”'
I'm trying to wrap my brain around this. This is the most anti-logic thing I've probably read in any NYT article. It seems to imply, while providing no argument or evidence to support the claim, that Java is somehow biased towards white and Asian men and women and minorities "aren't interested" in it.
Setting aside the utter ridiculousness of this, Java was picked because it has a huge market share and is also Object Oriented. Object Oriented Programming (OOP) is big, very big, and knowing how to do it will open up a lot of doors in the tech industry. Java in particular is widely used all over the world as an OOP solution, teaching kids Java is literally giving them marketable skills on top of educating them about the fundamentals of programming that they can translate to any other language of their choice.
If kids can't learn Java, they can't learn to code. Period.
3
While I don’t support the claim they’re making, I think you missed the point. It’s not that Java is biased towards white or Asian males, it’s that you can either teach the language from bottom up with technical minutiae like polymorphism etc., which might indeed attract that demographic, or you could teach people by letting them set the goal, as in “I want to write an App that does this” and then teach them how to get there in a more practical way. This much I agree with since people learn what interests them. IMHO fwiw.
1
Would be good for your citizens to be able to read and write as well as explore computers and a constitutional that still is a compromise with slavery. Electoral College.
Your constitution is an aspirational document manipulated by every charlatan in a country famous for its charlatans.
Democracy and freedom seem to be American notions no one else apparently aspired to.
Finally as the great nation of law and order sinks into corporate chaos, does anyone here remember a liberal arts education that teaches the ability to discern and think!
1
Nonsense. Students need to learn math and science and sociology and music and literature. And they also need to understand their society and how grotesquely unequal it is becoming.
4
This is a good idea, but why wait until high school. Elementary schools should have the oversized (illustrated) constitution, and middle schoolers can learn how to debate in a civilized manner.
Computer literacy is always a good thing; logic can help us all.
2
Computer Science curriculums aside, a great step in studying the Constitution would be to bring back CIVICS as part of the required course work in both elementary & secondary education. No one can be expected to understand how their government is supposed to work unless there is some level of basic education on the subject. Sadly, civics courses are no longer a prioriy in most our schools, and the result is the intolerant society we now have.
4
So two people working for a private company get to set the course for our nation’s future based on their plausible — or perhaps specious — beliefs? I’m going to stick with reading riting and rithmetic as a bedrock for now.
5
Is the College Board a public agency? How did it get so much influence? Who's in charge? What interests do these people have to we don't know much about? Don't wealthy districts do much of this work already, which means this advice is for poorer district?
The US constitution does not seem to empower the College Board with special powers. How did it get them? Does it use them for the public good? In whose opinion?
7
Here's one thing:
having parents who only give birth to and raise you in a stable home, a home in which getting educated is emphasized as critical to success.
1
The Constitution is a stand-in for literacy, critical thought and analysis as well as for thinking about ethics, moralities, etc.
Computer Science is the stand in for logical reasoning.
Nothing new here. What is happening is that people are discovering the education system has been failing since the 1970s and they are using contemporary terminology/concepts (the Constitution being under attack; the belief that CS is the only job worth having in the near future) to bring back the backbone, the core, of education.
1
Whatever you think of the Black Panthers of the late-1960s (and they did, among other things, begin the trend toward free breakfast programs in public schools), their leaders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale were effective because they had studied and knew the Constitution. So when police officers would confront them while they were standing guard in neighborhoods, carrying guns, they could remind the police of their right to do so. That's why we have those iconic images of them standing in front of public building with their guns, like guards, like free citizens, like white people.
3
They used to teach the Constitution in school - Civics in High School and US Government as an undergrad. Both were required when I went in the late 1970’s- early 1980’s.
I am not so sure about the coding thing, however. I work in a field - Medical Radiology - that is and has been very highly computerized- we were pushing images around before there was an internet over ISDN lines and in some cases dial up (on call interpretation of CT scans back in the 1980’s). The computers that drive, control and process the images from CT, MRI, PET and other imaging modalities are very sophisticated, but run on LINUX and Windows. The end user- Technologist or Radiologist- needs to know the interface and tools, but not the code underneath which is often proprietary and closed to all but field service engineers. The same is true of all the other software we use for charting, etc. The same is undoubtedly true in many professional areas.
One need not be an engineer to drive a car or fly a plane and one need not be a software engineer to use a computer. The whole purpose of the GUI and modern operating systems was to democratize computing- Steve Jobs called it a bicycle for the mind. I learned some computer programming in college, but have never really used it beyond just having an understanding of how the things work in general. In 1979 as Freshmen we were writing programs on Apple IIs, Commodore PETs and TRS-80s, storing our handiwork on cassette drives.
More math- not coding.
6
Computer science and computer literacy are two different but related things.
Computer science is the ability to write and understand code, aka to make your living as a computer programmer.
Computer literacy is the ability to do everything else on a computer. It is the ability to install, learn, and use applications, quickly, with minimum fuss, and to keep it all running smoothly.
Is the author saying that you need to be a programmer to be successful? Surely we need programmers, but is there no other path to success in our society?
2
Interesting, as several HS counselors I spoke with this year commented on the fact that AP classes are pretty much income-generating tools for the College Board, so they don't offer them. Akin to the "maintenance of certification" scams for physicians, which generate income for medical licensing boards.
3
Oh goody! For years I have noticed, in the people around me, a failure of understanding of the principles upon which our nation was founded. For instance, one of the basics: separation of church and state. I'm all for beefed-up civics instruction. As for computer science, it's the route I took myself as a secondary way to juice up my first career; it worked. But, I would prefer in young people a secure knowledge of literature and history and mathematics. That points to a broader liberal arts education, the lack of which is evident in the current set of technological revolutionaries.
2
@Woody
Beefed up civics instruction? How about any civics instruction at all? This course, which was mandatory in 12th grade in order to graduate, has virtually disappeared from the curriculum in most high schools. We have a president who seems never to have even read the Constitution and several members of Congress who think it's quite all right to ignore several of the 1st amendment freedoms.
Bringing back civics, the sooner the better, just might improve the public dialogue.
3
Should we listen to the College Board, which makes millions off of parents, about what our kids need?
4
Computer science at the introductory level--"the principles and basic coding techniques that drive computers"--is intellectually trivial.
Sure, it is useful to force yourself to think logically and break down a task into loops and "if--then" statements. But the kind of thinking that a beginner can do in an introductory course in ethics has far more intellectual resonance and human relevance than that.
4
We have let a private (non-profit) company, The College Board, dictate what is important to teach our nations children. Regardless of if you agree with this two codes approach, there is something fundamentally wrong with delegating this authority to a company.
5
I’m thinking the most valuable education for anyone not born to millionaires would be a deep, liberal exploration of western history, with special focus areas on class struggle, propaganda, banking and financial systems, and the economic underpinnings of war and empires. But that’s just me....
5
My understanding is that much of classic liberals arts education has been abandoned as the writing of “a bunch of old dead white guys”, as if creating the foundation for the modern world is of no importance in these days of universal aggrievement against “white men”.
If you do not know where you came from you have no way to navigate.
2
Rather than learning computer code, those interested in computer science should study the history of computers and how technology has morphed over the years. The telegraph was the Internet of the nineteenth century. Should all students back then have been made to learn the Morse Code? Check out Neil Postman's book Technopoly for more on how schools should teach the histories of technologies rather than technologies themselves.
5
Why not make content from the AP class the standard history class for everyone ?
3
Will kids learn that they don't have a Constitutional right to silence each other or call each other haters?
6
Fascinating....and the president of the United States nows nothing of either !
3
Perhaps learning to code a computer helps in understanding how they work, although it is a rather myopic grasp. Understanding how computers affect society and how it functions is a very different matter.
Zuckerberg and Gates and Cook among others have grasped computers with very different results for society, although they have in common that they all made billions of dollars. Zuckerberg is the poster child for how little an understanding of computers assists in doing good for society.
IMO the focus upon coding is a myopic endeavor oversimplifying hugely the role of education.
4
What about the environment? It is pretty simplistic to think that your future depends on your ability to work with computer code and understand our constitution. With climate change and population growth, what about understanding, and working on, the livability of our planet?
In the long run, our species needs food, water, and shelter to survive. We are a bit sheltered here in the US, but in many parts of the world, the focus of people is getting clean water, and growing enough food to survive. And there are no indications that it won't reach us someday. That may override democratic institutions if things don't change. And if you are hungry, you can't eat computer code.
2
How will knowing the constitution and computer programming help understand economics or science? Global warming? Globalization? Global migration?
There’s an enormous gap between freedom of assembly and the Civil Rights Act. Having the right to petition the government for grievances is only the first step of gaining redress. On the evidence, it takes 10 years or so. That’s the distance from Silent Spring to the EPA, for example.
I think the college board is copping out. The constitution and computer science are safe: uncontroversial. Teaching history risks politics. Teaching science risks religion and politics (see Change, climate). Same goes for federalism.
3
Great. As are many suggestions from readers: Your Money or Your Life and How to Write a Concise, etc.. Essay. And the speaking part, too. When I taught English, I would have students read the Federalist papers, not all, just certain ones and also certain cases, such as Citizens United. "A Modest Proposal" by Swift also shocks them and reveals history and satire to such a sharp degree they're chastened and enlightened, both. Not everyone can come close to Barbara Jordan's delivery and eloquence, but she was a power, indeed. The example of the NJ high school class terrific. Thanks, Tom.
2
I'm not buying this. Students need a strong foundation in the basics: They should know how to communicate well, read critically, write well, and speaking convincingly. They need to know math! Our kids can't do math, something necessary for everyday life.
Networking is vital too, and you can't stress that enough; it's the reason children from wealthier families do better in their careers (internships, connections to interviews).
5
One of the basic premises of this article, the need to understand the US Constitution as a key concept (which I strongly support), highlights something that has bothered me for years.
Having taught AP World History and AP US History, as well as regular levels of these subjects, we (here in California and a number of other states) have a misguided system in the Social Sciences, namely Modern World History in 10th grade, US in 11th grade and US Gov and Econ in 12th grade.
Econ and Gov are far easier for 10th graders to understand. They each deal with systems that the students deal with on a daily basis, as they are both consumers and involved with a government run system (high school). Uderstanding them leads to a better understanding of US History. And, knowing US History, it is easier to understand how Modern World History works because we have played such a major role in the modern (post 1600) world. And in these areas, better understanding of regular (as opposed to computer) logic should be a major focus. Understanding history is so much more than just knowing the facts. The “whys” must be learned as well as the “whos”, “whats”, and “wheres” to be able to use these lessons in their everyday life.
4
Ok but there is a more fundamental code: mathematics . In fact, computer coding relies on, at least, a good foundation in algebra.
9
Mastering an understanding of computers and the Constitution would probably make for good students and good citizens. I would add the ability to communicate clearly, both verbally and in writing. I have seen some appalling resumes submitted by college graduates. I sometimes think I should send them to the chancellor of the university and ask how it is that the person received a degree. Also, I have interviewed some college graduates that could barely articulate a goal or even express why they were applying for the job. These young people use the word "like" before every other word, and start every sentence with, "um." It's harder and harder to find employees that I feel confident putting in positions interacting with clients.
2
So the College Board considers two very testable things to be most important.
4
The College Board, and David Coleman quite specifically, has done more to pervert and distort education in America than nearly any other organization. The SATs and Advanced Placement curriculum have taken the joy out of discovery and the heart out of teaching. They've turned what should be a delightful dance into a stressful race.
And coding??? Really??? Artists, musicians, philosophers, social workers, teachers, lawyers and most other productive, contributing citizens don't need to code. It's like shifting a school curriculum to auto mechanics because folks need to drive to work. Technology is useful, although perhaps its usefulness is less than its dangers and its distractions. To the extent that technology is useful or necessary, there are more than enough "coders" and other "wizards" to create the stuff that we ordinary folks can use.
I am a lifelong educator and here are my two ingredients for success: Curiosity and empathy.
With those one can navigate and save the world.
16
@Barking Doggerel I wish I could like this a million time. Well said!
I learned far more in art school than I did after I finished my Bachelor of Science degree.
When I read the headline, the first and only code that came to my mind was honor. Then I saw Friedman's play on words (computer and constitution), and mostly agree, but I would still put honor on top.
1
While I agree with the Constitution 'code,' I think that the necessity for the other reinforces a trend that characterizes certain fields and occupations as 'worthy' to the denigration of others, and maintains the 'growth fallacy.' While I am really glad that some people will want to pursue computer science for the reasons Mr Friedman lays out, we will also need early childhood educators, caregivers for the elderly, welders and plumbers, farmers, social workers, and more. While AI and other computer technologies will no doubt affect these fields, the fact that these essential occupations (and many others like them) are considered low-status, low-pay catchalls for people who can't get a 'good' job tells us lots about something wrong-headed in our society.
2
You bring not just an important original perspective, but one that impowers us, repeatedly.
Do the work.
1
How about 'Your money or your life', aka life & money 101: budgets, loans and interest and how not to be in debt your whole life.
295
@Tom That's not an AP course--it should be taught to every kid beginning in 6th or 7th grade and continuing throughout high school like they used to do with health ed and driver's ed & training (semesters were req'd but timing was the student's choice to fit in with other electives or instead of phys ed). No one is immune from the harm that can befall if one can't understand how they can be taken advantage or the benefits from understanding how to work within the system.
21
@Tom
Look at all the business MBA geniuses who learned math running the country. We are now all $22 trillion in debt!
How do you learn to stay out of debt if you are a paycheck away from disaster?
I get your point - the "life" part should be the ABCs of how we are all conned out of our wealth by the wealthiest who are underpaying us while amassing astronomical levels of tax exempt wealth.
18
@PAN In America, it's everyone for themselves. Greed rules the day.
1
Nah, this has it all wrong. If you don't know what the Constitution says, and you know no computer science other than how to misspell rants on Twitter, you can rise to the top.
The tremendous value and the shortcomings of knowing “how to code” are exemplified by Zuckerberg. A person who was able to use computers to become s billionaire while poisoning society due to a complete insensitivity to it.
8
Knowing how to write a concise, coherent essay and how to speak in front of an audience are tell tales of success.
333
@TKW
Public speaking, and communication in general, is useful. Writing essays specifically, not so sure.
1
Absolutely .. particularly if one can analyze and criticize too.
10
@TKWyet Trump can't seem to speak coherently and can't read and write yet look were he is. I would say being a good salesman is more important.
5
In addition to the two codes described by Friedman, we also need to teach a Code of Ethics. Yes, our students need to "know how the structures of our government work and how to operate within them". BUT too many of our ambitious and intelligent citizens who understand our laws and constitution are hell-bent on using the laws and structures of government "to operate AROUND them". Example: If the Constitution creates a process for making a law, is it ethical for people in power to find ways to avoid implementing the law? See the Affordable Care Act, see the legislation that created the EPA.
1
I am an AP heretic; I teach U.S. Government & Politics (the official name of the course). AP is the height of teaching to the test. There is little, if any, flexibility to pursue in depth a topic of interest to students. The pressure to finish the curriculum before the exam is relentless. Students are anxious and want to plow through the material; most take more than one AP course and they are exhausted.
It is imperative for high school graduates to understand our government and our political system. They need to know the foundational documents and landmark Supreme Court cases. The country needs informed and effective citizens. But AP courses that contribute to the deep coffers of the College Board are not necessarily meeting their purported goals.
(One option: academically ambitious kids could take courses at a local community college).
10
What about the first code, absolutely necessary for free speech : articulated language ?
2
The degree to which this article presupposes continued American pre-eminence is absurd. Knowledge of the Constitution is certainly useful, but even within America it has never been especially useful or predictive of “success”. Increasingly success means being outside America, where the US Constitution is nothing more than another historical document rather than here, where it is increasingly a stultified sacred text.
3
@Ralph and you would think that for someone who wrote "the world is flat" which essentially argued that same point would understand that..
1
Yes, and a resounding no. Overall, the AP courses are curricula geared towards taking a test that makes the College Board a boatload of money. These courses are not college-level courses; they are just whopping amounts of information that students are forced to memorize so that they can pass the test, in the hope that it will help them get into the college of their choice.
Many years ago, a groupf of NY City independent schools up and did away wth AP courses, unerstanding that if they wanted to give their students more challenging content, the teachers were better suited to write meaningful currricula.
I recently had a conversation with the WOrld Langauge Department head at a good, suburban public school. They are an "AP" disrict, he told me, an so the students studying Chinese would take the Chinese AP. The fact that the Chinese AP is written for heritage speakers and not appropriate or meanngful for your average, non-Chinese student who starts learning Chinese in 7th or 9th grade was of no import or interest to him.
APs are, overall, a failed educational experiment, and thy persist because they are a big moneymaker.
5
coding is just telling a computer: This is a thing, do this to that thing and then do something else to that thing. It's no more complicated than giving directions. The complexity comes with the teaching. Keep it simple.
3
Called me old fashioned, but I think that more important than computer skills and memorizing the Constitution are learning critical thinking and history. And yes, getting out of the country, and seeing the world from a different perspective. A foreign language would also help.
5
So a wealthy upbringing then?
these are classes offered to American high school students. access to AP courses is much higher then access to enriching international travel.
@m.RN Why does one need to be wealthy to think critically or understand history?
1
Mr. Friedman's article made me feel discouraged and depressed. I don't want to live in a world where just these two things are considered important for "success in life", and I don't want the College Board to be considered the expert opinion on what's most important in education. I don't see that the endless expensive testing has made our society better in any way.
I believe we need nimble thinkers who have been trained in the human art of critical thinking and have the ability to exercise integrity and compassion when working to solve the problems we all face.
All of the readers comments made me feel so much better. Long live human intellectual diversity and curiosity.
12
Once again, a corporation focuses on measurables, not achievables. Yet, by emphasizing the US Constitution these blind men are in fact blundering towards the essential. Figuring out where our Constitution came from, how it shapes our legal system and how to manipulate it has been the foundation of successful income inequality for 229 years.
We all want sucess. Giving children broad understanding of the structures and levers of power within human organizations children should be the driving impulse of all educators. Instead, most education systems hide their inner workings, insist that platitudes are truths and apply industrial engineering techniques to produce "workers", not citizens.
It’s a good thing these students don’t have to know how to deal with people. Thanks, College Board.
2
Hmm I’m almost 60... can I take this somewhere?
130
@PatitaC Yes, you can. Invest in a college textbook about the American Political system from Norton and read it.
8
@PatitaC You can learn about anything on YouTube-- do a search
2
Two alternative codes:
1) Also learn, like our founders, how OTHER constitutions work
2) Master the philosophical, political and moral implications of the unreliable and dangerous rhetoric that computer science makes possible.
3
Perhaps students should be taught what is fundamentally wrong about the US constitution and why no other country has adopted it.
2
"Their answer: the ability to master “two codes” — computer science and the U.S. Constitution"
Their ability with the first "code" will help land them with companies and/or government institutions in high paying position that will allow them to usurp the everyone else's rights in the second "code".
1
I shudder to think of what this insane emphasis on testing by money making institutions is doing to our children. Value the teaching profession and pay accordingly and our children will be far better off. so will our country. Look at the incredibly successful Finnish model for example.
4
I love the options HS students have in this country. The AP Human Geography is an excellent course to learn about the world outside of America and a great segue to more rigorous AP classes. It has been an interesting year learning about languages and culture from my son's AP vocab cards and FRQs. My only complain is the GPA game the students are forced to play which often times forces them to take classes that they are not interested at all while discouraging them to take classes they love and are passionate about because these classes are not deemed "AP".
Sounds good. But the last time I compared a few AP Examinations to examinations in the same subjects in British-style A-level courses the AP examinations were a joke. Most of them still rely on a lengthy multiple choice section.
If you feel brave, try taking an A-level Cambridge International exam yourself in history or another subject:
https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/programmes-and-qualifications/cambridge-international-as-and-a-level-history-9389/past-papers/
The page with all the offered courses (each has sample exams available):
https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/programmes-and-qualifications/cambridge-advanced/cambridge-international-as-and-a-levels/subjects/
The AS exams are given to 16-year olds. l. Four A-level exams are typically taken by university-bound students during their final year or so in secondary school.
5
The Western culture has corrupted the meaning of the ward “success” - it now means only your economic success. Time has come to take it back to its original meaning “success in life”. Life has many aspects - money can provide the worldly objects and comforts, knowledge can give the joy of knowing the unknown in objective world and blissful experience brings the freedom from the limited objective world. Students should get the exposure on all these aspects in their formative years. Definitely two “codes” mentioned are two right ingredients for life, but one code is missing - freedom from objective world. It is necessary to bring that component in the SAT - the mush mellow experiment, the capacity to renounce and self control. American establishment is fearful of talking on this subject as it is against the market principles of consumerism. But for the shake of our greater goods we must teach this to our kids to make them happy and successful.
1
Study Shakespeare and understand the underlying reality of the plays. You'll know more than all the coders in college.
6
Didn’t the Times just run some stories about schools not teaching civics anymore? I’m confused, which is it......this smells anecdotal.
Not sure about the Construction half either, since DJT has exposed all of its weaknesses, loopholes, and inability to handle a crazy person with authoritarian inclinations.
One day this country will elect a competent dictator, one that reads......then let’s talk Constitution.
I’m sorry, but I just don’t have as much faith in our Constitution as you.
“One much-retailed story concerns Gödel’s decision after the war to become an American citizen. Gödel took the matter of citizenship with great solemnity, preparing for the exam by making a close study of the U.S. Constitution. On the appointed day, Einstein accompanied him to the courthouse in Trenton and had to intervene to quiet Gödel down when the agitated logician began explaining to the judge how the U.S. Constitution contained a loophole that would allow a dictatorship to come into existence. “
Quoted from Holt in: When Einstein Walked With Godel
The fact that I can still have Oreos and milk this afternoon for a treat does not mean our Constitution has not failed us.
1
I'm disappointed they didn't include: "How to act civilly."
3
Speaking of the Constitution, when did we elect David Coleman to drive education policy through his "nonprofit" College Board? Because he/it has for a decade or more, especially in the better schools, through AP curriculum and ($93) tests.
But the kids are figuring it out, refusing or just bombing the tests, which are largely meaningless for credit. The AP age is winding down.
1
More knowledge/education for more people is never a bad idea.
1
mr friedman seems to have done very little reflection on the racket foisted by the College Board on this nation's educational system, and the way this for-profit company has insinuated itself into our thinking about what education is.
2
No need for kids to learn a moral or ethical code growing up, Mr. Friedman?
The procedures of a representative republic are not a substitute for decency.
Computer coding does not inculcate loving yourself and loving one’s neighbor as yourself.
1
Not sure this is true. We have a President who doesn’t know how either works.
3
Why just an AP course and not a diffentiated course for gened — and open to anyone at night? Our education system is still stuck in the 1700s when only a few were plucked for higher education. Shouldn’t everyone be versed in these subjects?
1
Before we talk about kids needing to study the Constitution and learn how to do computer programming, let's talk about how many kids need to learn basic reading, writing and arithmetic.
6
Many of the students who arrive at the community college where I work are eminently talented but incapable of writing a coherent, cohesive sentence, let alone a paragraph.
You are seriously overestimating basic literacy skills in the United States.
4
"At a time when we have a president who doesn’t act as if he’s read the Constitution..."
Well, given his intense and frequent Bible studies and highly demanding "executive time," when would find the time to read the Constitution?
3 decades ago it was "Learn Japanese." A decade ago it was "Learn Chinese." Now it "Learn to code."
Forgive me if for some learning to code is a..... BORE!!! My son has no interest in spending his day sitting in a room with a hundred others "writing code" all day.
His Professor Dad, and Teacher Mom have dynamic careers that require constant learning, compassion, and skills beyond staring blankly at a screen. He, like us, values human contact and communication-- something "learning code" doesn't offer.
As for the Constitution, yes. And history. Every semester I am shocked at how little my students know of our Constitution or basic American history.
5
It would be nice if students had a solid understanding of the history behind the ratification of the Constitution before looking at bits and pieces sauced by the political agenda of the instructor du jour.
Please read the Bible for it has all to make all of us more humane and happy.
3
Giving them the text beforehand places content knowledge ahead of aptitude.
Like many of Friedman's columns, this opinion is disconnected from reality. Go to any graduate program in Computer Science and you will see a percentage of black and Hispanic students near zero. STEM is hard work, not populist nonsense. The Chinese certainly get it, as they comprise the majority of CS grad students at many universities. If Friedman wants to write a column about CS, he might want to address the fact that we are training our future enemies and giving them the tools to defeat us.
at the college where I work, I use the student newspaper as an indicator of how today's students are growing, or failing to grow. the student newspaper is just short of garbage. the kids can't write. and what they write about is shockingly unimportant--television shows, movies, and video games get weekly coverage. this is not encouraging. my interactions with many students are also not too encouraging. they are reluctant to take out their earbuds or put down their phones to listen to instructions. many seem to be wholly incapable of speaking with anyone they don't already know, and many seem to be entirely absent of any sense of humor.
how about we keep trying to teach them to write sentences, to learn to communicate effectively, and to care about something other than the latest vacuous comic-book 'movie'. as for the AP scam, it's a crime. it's just one more way for the rich and the wannabes to try to get an edge on the commoners.
3
And maybe a third simple moral code like:
Be kind. Tell the truth. Work hard.
313
@Andy A good course on the Constitution covers this.
2
@Andy
Your "third" code should be the first and primary.
5
@Andy I would adjust the "work hard" trope to "apply yourself fully". Work Smart!
Millions of Americans who bought into the "if I just work harder I'll do better" have seen their herculean efforts amount to nothing but constant struggle to make ends meet.
7
The question to College Board organizers was about particular and critical skills and knowledge of young people that are predictive of success in both college and life. And their rather confident answer was competence in computer science and the US Constitution. However, as to the matter of why these, not more than speculative argument is provided. Where are the studies to support these answers. And if there are such studies, are these competent themselves in terms validation as regards specificity, reliability, and sensitivity. SAT scoring has been honored for years and years, no matter test design and reformulation; and SAT stays in the “business.” But what’s assumed about SAT scoring seems, more often than not, a way to avoid the difficult question of what it takes up-front to be successful in college and life ... whatever that means.
Not to get too “religious” about it, but I would think one’s knowing, in the sense of deep commitment to, something like the Ten Commandments, would be fairly significant for fullness of living, ie, success. Further, finding one’s particular talent would be far more important for “success” in anything, than perfected ability to jump through standardized hoops, blindly obligated to take the work out of the obsession to rate.
java is probably one of, if not the most, unlikely languages to introduce a person to the kind of thinking that programming requires. It is also a very old language - developed some 40 years ago and then taken over by SUN computer who got take over by Oracle - two of the least ethical and untrustworthy stewards of a computer language one can imagine. Actually, beyond what anybody could image. The guys who ran SUN were well known in the industry for the deviousness and mendaciousness and Ellison who runs Oracle makes them look like amateurs.
It is infathomable to me that the College Board would choose to expose young people to using this language, given all the modern open source alternatives out there, to do anything.
Of course, beyond he specific choice of java, who programs in a traditional program language to get their job done? Almost nobody. I'd bet that several orders of mangnitude more people use SQL to access databases (often without being aware that they have done so) than every use java. Java became the language of programmers who believe the SUN/ORACLE hype that they could program once and run on "any" platform. That was almost true for a few minutes, but java programmers discovered that the user interfaces they developed didn't look native on any platform, generally performed much slower than native interfaces, and almost always did not work well at all on one or more platforms. It is the progamming language of choice for CS majors and nobody else.
I only got four, forgot petitions. Spent my entire career helping to implement computerized automation and teaching its functionality. Couldn't code to save my life. Just middle class in my retirement but both kids make more and both have these two skills to varying degrees. Perhaps not a great shaper but at least a passable manipulator. Great advice, this column!
The fundamentals of economics (to include the basics of personal finance) is an essential third 'code.' You can't vote intelligently if you don't understand the money.
1
The A.P. U.S. Government course should be required before you can vote. And every adult who is now eligible to vote, plus those of us who are registered could do with a refresher course as well.
A well-informed citizen would probably make better choices next time they vote.
And I hope this course teaches how to cancel out the Electoral College. It serves no useful purpose and has twice given us ill-equipped Presidents, both who have caused considerable chaos and huge problems for this Nation. One through trusting Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc., and the other through malice and greed.
3
Congrats on one of your most informative, generous, and inspiring columns of the Trump era. What the two leaders of the College Board have done/are doing seems extraordinarily useful and intelligent as you describe their work. I only hope the core concept spreads from 44k students to 4.4 million!
2
But here’s a critical problem: What about the kids who don’t have computers readily available, particularly at home? Or the number of homes without Internet access. There are, sadly, millions of such cases in this supposedly advanced country. Why don’t Microsoft, Google, Apple and the other tech giants undertake a unified effort to ensure that every child has a laptop and Internet access?
The number of students taking AP exams, regardless of race and ethnicity, is not significant. The number of students who actually PASS those exams is the only thing that matters.
2
I’ve long said civics is lost on people of most ages now. I don’t understand how we got here. I had a civics class in 7th grade over 40 years ago and I still remember all of it - that and school house rock to help reinforce the knowledge. While some think computer coding is key, I think critical thinking and problem solving skills are more important. While writing code may be a solution t resolve a problem, it’s not always the best solution
2
The grammar of (whatever programming language) is the least challenging aspect of computer science. Rigorous, precise, mathematical thinking is the core.
3
I’d like to take both these classes. Where do I sign up at my age? Great article! Thanks!
Credit for the establishing CS code as a key way to increase diversity/address inequity goes to the thoughtful work of Jan Cuny at NSF - building alliances and funding to support the development of AP CS Principles.
My perspective is that employers are driving workers towards a path of AI (artificial intelligence/robots) workers, they are preparing for a day when humans are no longer needed as employees. They have metrics set up, and basically a lot of jobs the "humans" have are "robotic" in nature in what they say and work. All of the IT jobs while they may seem exciting now because of need will be common place and boring in the years to come, the workers again being led down the path of Metrics (calls per hour, sales,no imagination) and canned responses in which customers can't tell if they are talking to a person or a robot. What are employers going to do to make conditions better, or are we already on a path to AI and getting rid of humans in the workplace.
1
This idea is a great oversimplification of a successful college prep strategy because it provides a specific actionable plan of study. My advice used to be to learn how to learn before attending college. Now my advice is to develop a lifelong habit of knowledge acquisition before entering college. These kinds of things help to provide the basic minimum for success. But the purpose of college is to develop career skills. Time management, communication. money management, logic, ethics, personal health management are just a few of the skills that can be developed in college that greatly influence future success. Coding and the Constitution can help develop those skills, but how many colleges measure their students progress at developing these skills? How many college students measure their success by grade point average instead of skills developed? This is a great step forward. We can do even better, It's not what you know that matters. It's what you can do with what you know that matters.
1
@Rusty Carr, I like your ideas. Critical thinking skills also should have been included in your list. And thank you @Thomas Friedman for another thought-provoking column.
@Alirie Kann
I shortened critical thinking into logic because I'm generally too wordy. I intended to mean the same thing, but there should be a distinction. Logic won't necessarily teach you how to watch Fox News and detect what kind of attempted manipulation is going on. Logic is a tool and critical thinking is how to use the tool.
One question - how do we define "success" anymore? Because to me, a product of the 60s, our definition seems to have changed dramatically. And in my view not for the better. Oliver Sachs addresses this in a recent New Yorker essay entitled "The Machine Stops".
1
Like most people who have commented on this article, I firmly believe that the subjects that I'm most passionate about are absolutely necessary for life success. That I'm a computer science teacher who reads US history for one of my hobbies is just a coincidence.
But also use to teach AP Statistics, so I will search for the College Board for the report and evaluate its data and methodology. Hard to argue with if the data supports it.
Wonderful and important article. Should be required reading for all citizens.
Trying to make computer science courses and exams more "welcoming" to those who may have no interest in computers or science is all well and good, but don't be mislead: Fluency in one or more modern programming languages (JavaScript, Java, Python, C#, C++, etc.) is still the key to a lucrative job in almost any industry.
What a great beginning. While this may prepare students for success In college, it is not enough to prepare them for success in life. Anyone who wants to shape the world needs a thorough familiarity with the both history and literature, that remain the best guides to both human nature, and the consequences of past efforts. Without the resources of history and literature, society is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past and overlook and ignore the foreseeable consequences rather than learn from them.
2
How is computer programming a key to success? It’s a specialized job skill isn’t it? Knowing a little programming is like knowing a little French - interesting and fun maybe, but it will hardly change your life.
2
@Robert Dawson, I respectfully disagree. Computer programming teaches logical thinking. Learning to be multilingual is mind-expanding, culturally-enriching and will make all Americans world citizens. Generally speaking, we are too isolated and self-absorbed over here.
2
This is great, everyone should learn about the constitution and computer programming. This should start in the 1st grade and continue through high school and college.
Then a change needs to be made in corporation management, law firms, wall street and government so that people that do not go to ivy league schools and the top tier schools can run these firms and government departments.
1
The test-based education stresses memorization, facts, and getting a decent score. It doesn't cover critical thinking. We have people elected to high office partly because some otherwise intelligent people can't reason through a basic statement. No analysis needed. Take the statement as fact. To achieve any success, kids need to at least learn to think critically, and not be spoon-fed fables that they have been programmed to accept.
9
I sure hope Mr. Friedman is simplifying the method by which these two individuals who hold powerful sway over how our children are measured and judged decided computer science and knowledge of the Constitution were more important than, say, knowledge about how to read, write, or do math. Who needs critical thinking or to cultivate openness of thought, as long as you can follow the rules of computer coding and Constitution reading?
I worked in a lab developing tools for Pschological testing. It gave me insight into how tests are developed. Its hard work but sometimes they can’t see the forest for the trees. These testers’ conclusions about what is important seem ridiculous, over simple, at face value.
So we need to know where we came from and where we are going -- such a revelation.
Plastics ?
Mitch McConnell knows how to manipulate the constitution but I would not want my child to be like him.
Yes, those 2 'codes' are important but there is more, much more.
Namaste
2
I helped both of my daughters with their AP Government class. The eldest took the old AP Gov. and the youngest just took the newer version. The newer version was far superior. It was much more engaging and rather than getting bogged down with minutia, focused on the more important aspects of our constitution and those seminal cases that shape our interpretation of it. Kudos College Board.
3
You lost me at "rather than have SAT exams and Advanced Placement courses based on things that you cram for and forget." Deep, rigorous learning isn't memorizing a bunch of facts and spitting them out on a test--it's honing a series of skills and using them to accomplish tasks. The SAT requires, among other things, rhetorical analysis; that's a skill. Flip through an SAT booklet or AP Language exam and tell me what students are supposed to "cram."
Communication skills, i.e. ability to read deeply and analytically, speak clearly, and write well, are the third leg of this three legged stool. These are the skills acquired through years-long study of the liberal arts. They're highest level skills that cannot be taught in one ot two AP classes.
5
Please arm them with these two subjects: one will help them in their career and the other will help them really understand democracy as it relates to the United States and maybe the future generations will never allow the travesty that is trump to reoccur.
2
Not the two things I would pick. I had a very successful career as a research chemist without knowing how to code. Although I do know how to build and use a computer. For those in the sciences and many other jobs, math is essential. Even if it's carpentry, or home repairs, math is useful. And English composition, since almost any job will require reading and writing skills. Beyond that, it depends on where your career is headed.
1
I am surprised to read so many comments which take a negative view of what College Board is attempting to do. This is a non-profit educational organization who sees as one of its main goals to close the racial academic achievement gap in America. It encourages academic rigor and emphasizes assistance to those who need it most. What other organization can say the same? As an educator who is also a College Board consultant in the subjects of AP American Government and Politics and AP US History, I am proud to work with the organization and support its efforts 100%. Thank you Mr. Friedman for pointing out what so many don't understand about the goals of College Board and its Advance Placement Program.
Noah Lipman
5
Thank you for your work, @Noah Lipman!
"Of all the skills and knowledge that we test young people for that we know are correlated with success in college and in life, which is the most important?"
I completely agree that we would have a more informed electorate if all students were required to pass AP courses in both of these areas. But does the College Board have evidence that passing these courses is correlated with "success in college"? And if so, what was used to define "success"? The student's GPA? Whether they completed college? Whether they secured a job that their college degree presumably prepared them for?
A more complicated question is how the College Board determined that students who passed these AP tests had a greater degree of "success in life"? I doubt that the College Board has developed a metric for this...
@WFGersen: These are crucial questions, and Friedman skips right over them. There may well be a correlation between whether students choose to take these two courses, and how well they do in college, and it may have little to do with the usefulness of the skills and information. The choice of the courses might stand in for a certain kind of interest and ambition. The person Friedman talks to seems to assume that the relation is causal: there are plenty of reasons why these are important topics. But that assumption of causality and usefulness is very dubious without a lot more back-up.
Even the correlation might be weak, Friedman doesn't say. I have heard it said that all the various tests and essays and so on used to select people for college have very little value in predicting how well people do once they get in. But that was a long time ago, and maybe they are better at predicting these things now.
Having spent most of my career teaching and administering in public schools, the debate over what knowledge is of most worth regularly surfaces at a variety of meeting venues---curriculum committees, faculty meetings. In these discussions, the most frequent comment made by teachers is the subject they teach is absolutely necessary for success in life---I still remember by high school math teacher telling me that without algebra my future job opportunities were dismal ---After 40 years in classrooms, central offices, building offices, and teaching at the university, I have yet to use Algebra for any managerial or educational function. So, I am always dubious about articles recommending the next must have course for future success in life.
1
Well that's one argument on how to follow the blind. Teach the children not only how to properly build robots, but how to become robots.
3
I thought "Grit" as Angela Duckworth defines it was the key to success. At least that seems much more plausible to me. Coding and the U.S. Constitution are good to know, but keys to success? I'd like to see that data that proves that.
2
The most useful course I took in high school was Bachelor Living. I learned how to make lasagna, sew on a button and do a blind stitch, make a jacket from a pattern. We learned how to draw up a budget, but I had to fake it because I simply did not spend any money.
In the academic track courses, I enjoyed learning about the Hammurabic code, ahimsa, “Mens sana in corpore sano,” the simplex method. Two kind, intelligent teachers taught world history and trigonometry, my favorites.
These courses had little practical application, but prepared you for similar courses in university, thence professional school.
Engineering entailed weekly problem sets, but very little learning about how to put up a building, a bridge, or design a plane. Much legal practice, which focuses on timely filing of paperwork, has very little to do with law schools’ emphasis on case law. Most lawyers never set foot in court and precedents are only cited in an appellate or Supreme Court.
I can convert kilograms to pounds, Celsius to Fahrenheit, and keep up with a cashier in tabulating a column of numbers—all in my head.
Coding is for youth who have the energy to stare at three screens full of tiny alphanumeric lines all day. Burnout rate is high.
Higher education in North America is punitively expensive and irrelevant. Well-compensated professors, administrators, and College Boards derive the most benefit. Project-based learning in an international context is much more worthwhile. Travel helps.
6
There are two codes prior to those here discussed and on which they depend. Ur codes, we might call them, those of written language and mathematics. Fluency and proficiency in these have long been understood as the essential measures of a student's aptitude to succeed in any discipline he or she might pursue at both undergraduate and graduate levels: not only government and computer science ... but also physics, economics, medicine, engineering, business, and law as well as literature, history, anthropology, classics, languages, ecological science, social services and even teaching! Yes, kids desperately need to understand how our political system functions and how computers work. However, the less we focus on those other, prior, and indispensable codes of accumulated human knowledge, the less able young people will be to navigate what no one can anticipate will be required of them, rather than what yesterday already has demanded?
Mr. Friedman seems to find a new rocking horse every five years or so, rides it to a book, then keeps flogging it until it's time to change horses again. Here is another culturally fashion-forward one.
1
How to think and create with digital tools? Yes. Computer science? Not so much.
1
The the intact loving family and supportive neighborhood are I'm told the best advantages one can give a child but for certain at minimum solid computer skills and knowledge of the US constitution seem to be the academic subjects every junior high school graduate should possess
Well, ok. I don’t have a problem with kids learning about the constitution and computer science. I do find it interesting that the solution to all of College Board’s reasearch is...to have students take more AP classes. Which then requires teachers to take professional development from the college board and gather materials from the College Board, neither of which are free. And the AP exam itself is 90 bucks a pop for students to take. I suggest any statement coming from Trevor Packer be taken with a grain of salt.
3
This is an exciting development for the College Board to pursue, helping transition the next generation from a path as 'rote memorizers' to 'makers', and should be celebrated.
But not every child has access to AP curriculum (only about 1/3 of the class of 2017 took an AP class), nor do they prepare for the SATs in a rigorous enough way to unlock the learning that comes from modifications to that exam. How would the College Board, and education policymakers around the country, propose to implement this program at scale?
4
I have always been enjoying Thomas L. Friedman's writing -- even when I failed to agree.
The most important codes for the future will be to mitigate and resolve the four basics of human interaction: Lie, Cheat, Steal, Kill -- as our food and water slowly diminish amongst the never ending population increases.
5
Companies pay people to solve problems. Every year, companies strive to increase revenue and cut costs. The closer your job is to fulfilling these two goals, the more secure your position and the ability to grow your career.
2
The purpose of education is to teach: literacy, critical thinking, and civic responsibility. Yes, skills are important. I would rank financial fluency above computer coding. I would rank critical thinking above all.
One other thing -- we go to school to help us socialize. Screens harm that process.
3
As one who sports a version of the word "Federalist" on my license plate, I certainly welcome efforts to teach the Constitution to our nation's youth. Given the hands that control education in the US, however, I wonder which version of the Constitution will be taught. Will it be the one clearly intended by our founding fathers specifically limiting the power of government to protect free market capitalism and individual liberty? Or will it be the new progressive interpretation which views the Constitution as a tool through which elite property owners control and oppress the masses. Will it be the Constitution that has a finite meaning or the one that is evolving and entirely elastic through references to the general welfare and an unbounded interpretation of the Commerce Clause?
I think we all know the answer to those questions. By force-feeding the progressive view of the Constitution and reinforcing the compulsion through the all-powerful SAT exam, we can count on a new generation of who believes that the Constitution was intended to create an all-powerful "mommy state" protecting everyone from competition and the consequences of their individual decisions. Who needs individual liberty in a world of participation trophies?
3
@AR Clayboy: Well, that kind of course often leans toward your ideal of rote memorization of sections and paragraphs, because that's easier to test with a standardized test. But there is apparently going to be at least some token coverage of history, so you're right, kids might learn about how the Constitution has been interpreted differently over the years. We know you don't like that, but lots of us think it's the most important thing to learn.
@AR Clayboy
I find the Rhode Island lawsuit re: the teaching of civics fascinating. I cannot wait to see how it unfolds.
The fact that renewed emphasis is being placed on learning our Constitution is awesome!
So many of our older citizens do not know about how the government works. It is apparent by the lack of knowledge some of the younger students have that their parents have not discussed this with them. To this day, I am amazed about the number of citizens who do not exercise their right to vote.
Emphasis on civics education is a step in the right direction. Although some may complain that this does not help them get a job, it is important for students to learn about the history of our country and how it should be considered a privilege to work for the government, not a method for enriching oneself as the current president seems to be doing.
3
@delmar sutton
The question of whether civics should be taught is now being addressed in the courts.
1
My kids used the AP courses for what I thought they were intended: to jump start their college courses of study. My daughter, to start as a freshman in 2nd year chemistry and advanced math. My son, to "take care of" required core math and science courses so he could skip straight into his declared major fields of study--International Relations and Political Science. Personally, I think being able to communicate well in written English, and to think critically--to "compare and contrast" as they used to teach in my high school many years ago, are the most important things students need from high school.
3
Interesting that both 'codes' are the result of other skills. One cannot understand the Constitution unless one knows how to read well and to use logic. One cannot code computers well unless one knows how to read well and use logic. One cannot do logic unless one know Mathematics and understands the Scientific process. Reading and understanding what is read is not simply a mechanical skill; it requires literary practice (i.e. reading what others have written and writing oneself).
While mechanically possible to be proficient in just Computer Science (in the form of basic code) or reading, the ability to decompose information and synthesize new information (both essential skills unless one is to be merely a biological automaton) are paramount.
Unless of course the College Board is defining success as money earned and not progression of society, knowledge, and better survival of the species.
5
@JustJeff: The relationship between math and logic (and computer coding) is pretty interesting. I don't think its quite as simple as that you can't do logic without Mathematics -- or even the other way around. But I wish we had studied that kind of thing in high school.
And then there’s Discrete Math...a whole other alien universe.
If we don't understand the Krebs Cycle .... or some simplified version of how living organisms interact to convert carbon and oxygen into energy .... the most comprehensive analysis and knowledge of any Constitutional laws or computer code isn't going to save our grandchildren on this planet.
3
Learning how to program a computer is important even for those who do not intend to create apps or use computers extensively because programming forces you to think logically. If our current political climate shows us anything it is that too many people are incapable of thinking logically when it comes to matters that concern this country (and this planet).
4
People seem to be missing the point of the article. Coleman and Sanford asked how they could engage POC and women, who are normally less interested in "pure" CS. Their answer was smart: make it more holistic, not "specialized", more relevant to success in a variety of fields, not just coding. Even if you're interested in the arts, literature, business or science, computers play an important role. Without some CS skills (not necessarily programming) it's harder to succeed in those areas.
4
I think what is missed here is that the unifying theme of both codes is the ability to reason logically and rationally. That is what needs to be taught.
6
Codes are one thing but Government and how it works is simple Money
2
Does this have just as much to do with he fact that well funded schools in affluent areas (kids with affluent and well educated parents) are more likely to be able to take advanced placement in this areas and do well? Be cautious when interpreting data. Confounders exist.
3
I find it difficult to take anything the College Board says seriously. Their main product, the SAT, proves NOTHING. It does NOT accurately predict who will do well in college and who will not. It is the triumph of marketing over fact. The College Board has made the SAT the "necessary evil" in the college admission process.
A standardized test measures...how well you take a standardized test. Nothing more. Yet our public school teachers tie themselves in knots trying to "teach to the test," while at the same time trying to help kids learn real skills of reading, writing, arithmetic, and critical thinking.
So pardon me if I don't quite believe the College Board's trumpeting of computer science skills. I am reminded of a line from the old "Star Trek" TV series. Mr. Spock said, "Computers make excellent and efficient servants, but I have no wish to serve UNDER them." Technology is great...when it WORKS. But ask any teacher trying to get a leftover, 10-year-old desktop computer to communicate with an equally leftover, 15-year-old projector how "important" technology is in the classroom People get too distracted by the bells-and-whistles of technology, and they fail to ask, "How does this device specifically help my students to LEARN?"
Too many people outsource their thinking to their laptops. I want my students to be well-educated, well-read citizens capable of critical thinking--not desk-based computer drones. A computer is a tool. Its value depends upon its use.
5
@Jack Connolly
While, as a high school history teacher, I sympathize with your point about technology in the classroom, coding is not just using technology. It is learning the language of computers and, is as Spock would say, how to make them more efficient and elegant servants. That is thinking and very different from playing with tech bells and whistles in the classroom.
3
Did I miss where these two folks "showed their work"? From what I can tell, this is a horrendous example of two people -- can it really be only two?? -- who had a fairly simplistic idea and then imposed it on our entire country's youth through re-jigging the exams. Maybe that was not the process, but that is how Friedman presents it. Writ large, this is the process that is killing our public high schools: the 'expert' consultants introduce initiatives that change the entire curriculum without consulting the expertise of the teachers who can draw on years of experience with actual students and their actual progress.
4
I don’t know how to code but the most useful skill i use everyday is my relational database skills. Joining data from different sources to tell a story that identifies trends my company can use to determine focus and strategy. I use it every single day - knowing how to work with data, what to do with thousands or millions of records - how to interpret it for the organization you support - it is invaluable and you know what else? Very few people are really good at this. They can’t see it, they are afraid to get underneath it - they don’t know how to spot the anomalies... We should teach this - because people spend lots of time running down the wrong path and then they run out of funding or runway and then there are layoffs..
4
The two even more important codes that I want my grandsons to know are how to treat others and how to communicate.
4
@Cliff
My primary codes for my children were personal responsibility and a strong work ethic.
3
Excellent observations regarding the realities of our culture as it has evolved from analog to digital. To these two critical disciplines, I would add emphasis on financial literacy, starting in grade school. Too many Americans are clueless about financial management, which is part of the reason they are not prepared for their senior years in retirement. However, if they become proficient in coding and keep current with computer languages that are in demand, they'll be well compensated and able to work longer because we cannot fill the available jobs we have today with skilled American workers.
The expansion of AP is a scam, much like high-stakes standardized testing is a scam. As the SAT's have lost their luster, the College Board has had to broaden its portfolio. Thus the expansion of AP courses.
Anyone currently teaching Advanced Placement courses knows that the growing interest in taking the courses is primarily driven by parents pushing upward mobility on their children. Thus we find students taking three or more AP courses at a time, which only the most-qualified students with the fewest other demands on their time should do, merely because their parents say they should. Not surprisingly, many of these students don't do very well, and quite a few of them suffer emotional collapse or nervous breakdowns under the strain.
All of that would be bad enough, but the College Board racketeers make a nice living off all that teenage angst, which so often comes to naught for the students. It's understandable that parents and students compete for prized college placements, but the costs are too often borne by the kids, many of whom end up saddled with enormous amounts of college debt and chronic depression.
4
I don't think kids understand sufficiently how much it costs to properly raise a family as compared to how much money they are reasonably likely to find in their take home pay. I don't think they understand the need for using (long term) birth control until they are financially ready.
5
I'm a senior citizen, and I'd like to learn coding and the Constitution, too. Where can I find good courses?
13
This is one of many possibilities for preparing our future generations of young people. Until higher learning becomes available to everyone, then it’s still based on economic privilege.
4
If these two areas are truly important or just more on top of more, I would suggest connecting student learning through AP tests to teacher training, which does not include coding or study of the Constitution for most. As for the Constitution, also important and prior to the standardized testing regime, a standard part of a middle school or high school education for most students. I would suggest a modernized rhetoric class using online resources and practice having conversations and debates face to face where you might have to "code-switch" to persuade another human, is more useful to students than taking more exams, which, by the way won't reduce the cost of college.
3
This is an excellent column highlighting some amazing changes for the better at College Board. Column looks for points where both sides of political spectrum can agree.
1
As more kids are pushed into programming, more kids are finding themselves in a very hard major that they don’t get and can’t do.
8
@Jane - that type of major would have been my worst nightmare.
@Jane
It's not that hard--especially girls should try-they tend to be detail oriented. Most courses teach kids to be users not engineers-that requires the difficult math. There are tons of tutorials online.
There is a concept and body of understanding that encompasses and to a large extent explains both of these codes: technology. A better understanding of the principles and anatomy of technology, and how both codes are an expression of those principles in pursuit of provisioning, would serve all peoples well.
2
I am a high school AP teacher. The College Board is a non-profit like the Gambino Family is a non-profit. It's a shuck, and the faster we learn this, the better we can prepare our students for the 21st century.
Our kids need good mental health and metacognition. That's it. How they get there is to be individualized with interesting, creative classes and pedagogy.
If the AP is so important why have most elite, progressive schools eliminated them?
AP- where intellectual curiosity goes to die.
26
The constitution really isn’t that hard to understand. It is also generally irrelevant day to day. Also in a global world, in which American influence is fading it is becoming decreasingly important.
Of all the things that one could learn, focusing on the constitution feels like a desire to move back to the way things were rather than focus on the reality of change. A gasp of self importance from a crumbling country.
4
The code behind both the algorithmic view of the Constitution and the computer is the code of the analogy. Beethoven's pretty sounds are in fact, philosophical arguments between they tyranny of destiny and the imagination's desire for freedom. Bach's music is the emotional argument between fear and faith. The Constitution argues that impulse and compulsion are not in the People's best interests and the computer model of the mind argues that algorithms, not insight, are how we solve problems. Putting computer code on top only reinforces the banality of evil for it subordinates all of us who reject the bureaucratic control that the "man in the gray suit" has over our lives by producing art, metaphors, and analogies. The computer and the reign of the algorithm will make the Constitution redundant but people will always be attracted to metaphors and art.
6
@Max & Max
The College Board, the Constitution, and Computer programing are codes that argue against insight. They promote the idea that truth is the product of reason, not that sudden moment of illumination. As a result, they promote a commodity upon which people believe they are dependent, and of course, sells it. "Insight people" (like creative ones and artists) know that. The College Board isn't promoting the means to change the world, it's reinforcing the man in the gray suit view of the world and that is not a good thing.
1
More emphasis on these two areas is probably an improvement overall, but the underpinning of the argument is faulty.. The basic problem is that correlative data is being treated as causative.
2
Thank you! Politics in the US has been so depressing the last years that as an expat I have considered cancelling my NYT subscription to avoid reading about it entirely. This column is the first in a long time to convey a gleam of light at the end of the tunnel.
Where can we get the syllabus for the A.P. government course? It sounds like it should be required reading for every citizen.
1
It makes perfect sense that students are enthusiastic about computer science courses.They begin using computers when they are in grade school and everything about them is relevant to their lives. The challenge is to,engage students in the Constitution and our history.As an oldster, I remember that Washington and Lincoln were taught to us as real heroes and we could recite their virtues and their importance to the country.It is beyond time to teach students about the founding of our country and its Constitution.The Trump administration has challenged everyone to examine the Constitution and the Bill of Rights-I hope students are inspired to understand these documents but I am afraid that much of the current angst about adherence to laws is passing them by while they check out Instagram and send one more text message.
1
The one, best thing to instill in students is curiosity. Cultivate that quality and a lot of the rest will follow.
6
There are many interesting takes on this article among my fellow readers. What I didn't see in those that I read, was in my opinion the most important skill for a successful life, no matter how you wish to measure that success. Learning to solve problems in a general sense, is something I have seldom seen in curricula at any level. Teach students how to analyse and solve problems, and they will have a tool, not only for school courses, but throughout their lives.
One thought about making coding software a top priority: It seems completely logical, but I wonder how useful it will be in10 years. The rate at which AI is changing the future jobs market only continues to accelerate. This includes algorithms that write software. Actual people are still required, but the need for semi-competent coders is diminishing quickly. Some predictions estimate that within 15 years, 40% of all jobs will be automated. This includes software design, along with most other white-collar fields. Being on the wrong side of 60 I don't have to try to figure out which occupation would be a wise choice. For that I am grateful. My sympathies for our youth; they are inheriting a messed up, crazy world.
8
Problem is that colleges do not emphasize AP Government in admissions and seem to want APUSH and AP Bio which pushes students into these courses.
I think important skill to have is knowledge how to avoid all sorts of addictions, Internet addiction included. Also time management, how to keep healthy lifestyle (avoid sleep deprivation), and nutrition (sad to see students crunching on pizza and high fructose corn syrup filled soda).
I got an A- in coding, it didn't help me at all with other classes.
12
Is there a similar course on the Constitution for adults? We all need it.
2
Holy educational and American well being fantasies Batman!
The most basic premise is wrong because it assumes the best thing for college students and the graduates is a money making field. One of our problems is our bend towards money because everything has become hyper competitive and hyper expensive as a result of the 0.1% owning too much of the pie. This is a downward spiral we are caught in trying to catch the rat in front of us; however, one usually gets so caught up in the rat race, he or she doesn't have time to realize he or she is on a treadmill and not only going nowhere but still managing to crank the machine for the powers that be.
As we educate so we reap. I've been an IB and an AP teacher, I've graded SATs for Pearson, and I've taught ESL, Special Ed., and gifted and talented readers, writers and mathematicians. We have more to offer than the same failed game of economics when that game consumes humanity.
Without passion in an area one cannot create anything worthwhile. 1% inspiration 99% perspiration--where do you think people find the energy to create something from nothing? Passion.
Passions lead to profits, profits lead to power, and power is an aphrodisiac to its own end. Power never creates, it destroys in its quest for more power. Conversely, opportunity feeds passions; therefore, we need to find ways to turn the profits of the lucky into the opportunities for the many.
14
Reasoning and independent thinking skills are the two codes needed. The College Board's revamped history and computer science tests are their latest marketing ploy that gets kids to memorize and regurgitate in tired states, leaves little time for kids to actually think on their own, and, once again, favors those with money to prep.
We need to move away from test-based learning which only serves to churn out standardized robots and enrich the College Board. Had Thomas Jefferson and the other founding fathers been forced to cram their minds for these tests, I suspect they wouldn't have had the skills needed to have even conceived the Constitution.
14
Learn a trade - carpenter, plumber, electrician. Less likely to be outsourced. Didn't he also say the world is flat?
7
“... be able to shape the world around you, and not just be shaped by it” well the world needs more than lawyers and computer programmers.
Liberal arts are missing from the big picture and if you don’t know math then knowning the Constitution or computer code will not help you.
4
Both Friedman and the College Board are dead wrong. Neither knowledge of the Constitution nor computer coding are necessary for success--look who's in the White House!
7
They missed it. The most important is the Honor Code:
"We will not lie, cheat or steal. Or tolerate anyone among us who does."
If we lived by it, think of the progress we could make in the world.
11
Trump seems to be OK on computer science. Needs to brush up on the US Constitution.
1
Uh, well, many top tier colleges and universities no longer require SAT or ACT (two dinosaur codes?).
2
AP and College Board is a business. It’s time
for schools to stop giving them so much power over our lives. #downwithAP
3
Define "success."
“‘Knowledge, skills and agency’ — kids learn things, learn how to do things and then discover that they can use all that to make a difference in world.” Then they go out into a real world run by the rich. They better learn to ask the most impirtant question: Cui bono? Who Profits?
3
Another glib opinion from a columnist. Sure, learning coding may be fine, but the idea that SATs scores are achieved solely by cramming is nonsense. For many middle class kids whose families do not make their children cram, the scores represent long term learning and a basic capacity to learn (coupled with a good foundation of facts).
And despite all the coding, some will still need to understand how words flow together into clear sentences.
I suggest instead that kids keep on the math track through HS and make sure that they continue to take math classes in college (from advanced calc to linear algebra etc). If they can also write clearly, they will have no trouble.
They can dabble in a few programming courses too.
4
Here is what I believe also really matters. I am 76 and I took in and cherished over 168 children in the mountains and cherry orchards and sometimes the city. Sometimes with an outhouse and no electricity. This is what I learned in college that guided me:Here are words for all teachers and parents to remember this week especially:
"I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness:
Gas chambers built by learned engineers.
Children poisoned by educated physicians.
Infants killed by trained nurses.
Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates.
So, I am suspicious of education. My request is: help your students become human.
Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.
Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more humane."
--from Teacher and Child by Hiram Ginott
17
Excellent article - very important principles that will help us build a better future.
Note: when Thomas Friedman is in form, he hits it into a different ballpark in another galaxy, he's that good
2
Another attempt to keep the SAT racket going. There is ample research that SAT doesn't predict much -- it is able to explain only 10% of the variation in first year college GPAs. Subject matter expertise -- your GPA, SAT II -- are much-much better predictors.
2
I couldnt disagree more........
I have an Masters in Mechanical Engineering and done my job for 35 years. I actually wrote a program (in Fortran no less) in school used by a major airline for maintenance in 1980's before better techniques came along.
Since then you know how many times I've needed "coding" or "writing apps" skills? NONE. ZERO.
I see kids starting out all the time and you know what skills they REALLY need?
1. A work ethic. Majority of them arent overtly totally lazy. Just a little lazy. I'm 60 and get twice as much done before lunch as they do in 2 days. And I'm not only older one who does it either. They want to play "app" in front of a screen rather than go see, touch, learn, do or get away from the screen for any longer than they have to. If youre engineer and dont want to touch, learn, ask questions or just talk things you're of no use to me.
2. Basic people skills. Which stuns me. If communication is not in form of a text, surely not face to face, then theyre lost. They cant go meet a customer, a client, a vendor, a contractor and problem solve on the spot which requires active thinking. Not rocket science decisions but simple ones that demonstrate common sense. Just listen to them understand their needs, face to face not w/emojis, and do best you can. And leave with a smile. Not hard.
3. Willingness to know the job precedes sushi night or GOT with your friends if you want a better gig. and dont post a pic of yourself doing that. ever.
4.
17
One of the biggest failures in our country has been the gutting of the educational system at the elementary and secondary levels. We have allowed the Besty Devoss of the world to take our basic courses apart. There was a time when Civics was a required course in the 5th and or 6th grade. By deleting it, we have removed the ability to teach children their civic place and "dumb up" the future generations. After all, the most powerful person in the room is an educated one.
3
@urmyonlyhopeobi1
Since Civics seems to have been gone for quite a while, how is it Betty Devoss's fault. I believe much of what has gone wrong is test mania, fully supported by Arne Duncan.
The main idea of this article is absurd on its face.
The College Board can do anything it wants, in terms of how it structures it's test(s). That does not mean they understand what's important in terms of what folks need to know to be productive.
I worked at the College Board as Director, have a PhD, worked in public schools for 28 years and now testify in court as an expert witness. My son is a code developer on Wall Street, wrote code for NYSE and will retire by age 40. Neither one of us needed SAT scores to get where we are.
The cognitive skills one needs are more diverse than these two areas. The quality of schools and an affordable education will do much more to grow our society than narrow content focus of any single test. Trivia enhanced by microscopic rationality.
1
Correction: these kids need to be instructed in the evolution of the Tax Code. Because we are leaving them the legacy of a monstrous national debt. Not one word is ever mentioned about the horrendous lack of concern that Congress and perhaps the constituent voters demonstrate toward our posterity, as it hurtles to maturity. Who wouldn't be angry to be stuck with a massive unsolicited and unavoidable bill?
3
Get rid of the College Board, add some functional courses to high school or take them at a community college or cram school, and concentrate on content that matches probable areas of interest. I would actually put an accounting course along with financial management over coding. The real lack in most high schools is career counselors who have any practical knowledge or experience along with too much money spent on athletics.
2
Donald Trump succeeded and even became President without any knowledge of either of the two codes. So much to their relevancy.
2
I am retired, worked in the technical field in my career, and I didn't find this article that convincing. When I look back to my education these are the things that I found the most useful.
In high school;
- typing
In engineering;
- the ability to tackle any new area and to master it
- limited number of new areas that I was required to master
- algebra - to identify key variables within the area and be able to express these in formula such that I could then write code to better understand and communicate essential information about the subject
- skills to work with other (my poorest attribute)
People skills
The people that I had the least skill with where control freaks and this covers most managers. The desire to control others appears to be the most important motivation and skill to get into management.
7
This is just another big advertisement for AP tests given by the College Board, a so-called "non-profit" organization that seems to make a lot of money for the people running it. The pretext is that it helps students, poor students especially, because they can get a supposed leg up on college through their courses. The reality is that it further standardizes learning, further automatons the average student into thinking that there's One Right Answer for whatever the subject. And the subjects of AP classes should not on average have One Right Answer but multiple ones.
Did you know that theirs an AP class for studio art now? Absurd.
AP exams have rotted out American minds. The kids compete to see how many AP classes they can take, not because they're interested in the subjects, but because they think colleges want to see them take AP classes.
Again: the harm is in the standardization of the minds of youth. No longer is there room for interesting courses in high school. It used to be high school English departments would offer things like literary criticism or literature courses on women or on the African American experience or on utopian literature. Now it's all AP English Lit! All standardized. All the same. The answers on the tests scantronned into the students' brains. All exactly the same.
And the College Board disingenuously walks away with our cash -- especially the cash of poor students at $90+ per test -- having sold us all down stream.
3
Is it really the Constitution? Doesn't that sort of ignore the complexity of history, governing, and today's issues? Yes the Constitution is very important. But it's like saying "learn assembly language". Sure it's important, but a lot has come since too. We shouldn't all be Scalias and take everything from the Constitution.
2
Well intentioned though it is, the College Board's new direction remains incomplete.
First, let's inquire: what is success? It is apparent that acquiring stuff-money, property, toys, fame-is not it. All the toys in the world do not fulfill a void felt in much of humanity.
Neither will that void be filled by knowing codes nor constitutions, though they may be required to help navigate life.
But to navigate its whitewater? Self knowledge. To know what it means to be fully human.
Existentially almost all of us are walking earth with a case of mistaken identity: that we are not quite enough. A lack of worth.
That is a result of the installation of a primitive, buggy software program received in our earliest years from family and culture about how the world works.
This faulty unconscious conditioning impairs are reality: we are whole, complete, limitless, sublime-and ordinary.
Beseiged, though, by the feverish programming we chase objects outside ourselves under the mistaken belief we will be a somebody.
Self knowledge dissolves the ignorance that reveals a reality: we already are a somebody.
Add this to College Board's prerequisites, and humanity has a chance to embody universal values such as "do no injury," and "do unto others as you'd have others do unto you."
So teach people what it means to be fully human, using a proven means that's already "enlightened" millions, and help them embody that.
3
Great, another mindless STEM endorsement. Art, history, literature, philosophy, etc, are all core building blocks of humanity. Why aren't we celebrating this fact? Life is not meant to be "useful". It is to be "loved" and "celebrated". Instead of focusing on skills that will likely be out of date once AI takes over programming, why don't we celebrate what separates us from AI? The things that make us human? I fear for our future if we emphasize the latter and forget the former.
10
Technology has led to a society where the state has the ability to spy on the most secret thoughts, communications and behaviour of citizens thus destroying the right to privacy which is the basis and foundation of any democracy and from which all other freedoms spring.
Where does this leave international students who are taking the SAT?
Bravo to the College Board. Having taught A.P. American Government for 25 years I can say from personal experience that there is no better way to " teach the Constitution " than by utilizing court cases. Debating opposing sides in controversial contemporary cases, as well as inderstanding the nuance in classic SCOTUS decisions, increases student involvement and makes for lively, interactive classes. Requiring students do develop arguments for both sides especially in "culture war " cases allows the student to understand the basis for an opposing viewpoint, gain valuable perspective, and hone vital critical thinking skills. Students also gain a " hands on knowledge " of the Constitution and the Amendments. By the end of the year they have internalized the basic content, can move on to developing more sophisticated skills of analysis, and implicitly have been exposed to the dispositive issues in American history.
.
5
Now if only the US Government and GOP would defend and uphold the Constitution, and leave off using IT to subvert democracy.
7
This is what Coleman and Stanford's thoughts prove. They are intimidated by the ubiquity of computers and rather out of it as far as what they can do for you. One thing is clear. They can't sit in front of a screen with their hands on a keyboard and just fool around doing different things-- checking sources, writing, doing the occasional computation and the odd bit of programming to get that accomplished. Since they are so clueless about the machines, they have no sense of their limitations. Language arts (writing etc) is the programming language of the vast wired together brain known as humanity and if you can't put together subroutines to handle that you can't do anything. It is also crucial to get out of the world you've grown up in and to travel and see different cultures and the fantastic poverty, piety, cleverness and ingenuity of their fellow humans and to see what real hardship is so that you will know what an odd bunch of pasty white worms we become scratching at keyboards in dark enclosed spaces.
2
The Constitution is no match for a Supreme Court who says Corporations have free speech and the right to spend unlimited funds to "speak" to and "persuade" our politicians.
Teach your kids to live on contaminated food, air, and water. And to never get sick, or at least die quick.
That's the only future we offer them.
2
I am thrilled that someone is putting pressure on the Ed. system to teach something of civics. Best news in months!
4
How ironic, an article declaiming the importance of young people understanding the United States Constitution while we have a President who is ignorant of its design to enable our government to work effectively. He's gotten to the top in politics with no concept of Constitutional checks and balances, and his followers applaud that. What type of future success for students is this article about? Perhaps I missed something here, but the idea that a knowledge of coding and the Constitution are this major seems highly exaggerated. Happier? Financially better off? Kinder human beings? More socially astute? Harder workers? What?
This “cut to the punch” approach of learning more and more about less and less until one knows everything about nothing and nothing about everything is, in my opinion, why we find today’s society in a tailspin with most of country’s recent generation less equipped to react to increasingly rapid change. You will never convince me that a broad-based education did not produce better, more reflective and more productive citizens. But, following your logic, you had better add Chinese to the head of the list.
4
The fact that the SAT has a long passage on the Constitution is not sending any kind of message. It tests reading comprehension and nothing more. My kid lives in Europe, never read the Constitution and did just fine on the SAT. And the AP class sounds very nice, but it will cost another 90 or so dollars for the kids to take the exam at the end. It's frankly shocking to see the College Board presenting itself as somehow contributing to the education of American kids. If the College Board really cared it would not charge nearly 100 dollars per AP course. This is a travesty and Americans should exercise their right to freedom of expression by joining together in a nationwide boycott of college board exams. And the common app should be administered by the Federal government for free. The 14th amendment ensures equal access to education, but it doesn't sound too equal when there are families out there who don't qualify for a fee waiver but struggle to pay for SATs, SAT subject tests, AP tests and then between 60 and 85 dollars in application fees to universities. Oh yes, and the CSS profile costs 25 dollars per univeristy (pretty ironic when submitters clearly need some financial aid). More than a thousand dollars just to apply, yet it's often noted that most familes don't even have an extra $400 for an emergency. And then when they're kid gets in, they get the bill for tuition, room and board.
4
Computer science and the U.S. Constitution are the two most important things a person needs to know to succeed in college and life in America today?
Seems rather crude and simplistic to me. The development of computers so far has been so astounding that among other things it has thrown us into a world where people once classed as probably paranoid schizophrenic now have to be taken seriously because the ability to precisely target individuals by sophisticated psychology and reality manipulation is so powerful it makes the situation of a film such as Gaslight seem like mere amateurism.
And when we reflect that for all Constitution in the U.S. it has never stopped monopolies in religion or free speech, etc. from occurring (you are certainly more free to express the more others automatically align with you and the more power is on your side, etc.) we have to more than wonder if the Constitution can really protect the individual in the age of computer. My belief is of course it's important to know computer science but really a person should strive to know how everything operates, to see into developing system of society and life.
And I would without question choose to know more about psychology than the U.S. Constitution, not least because the Constitution seems fairly simple in comparison and in fact conducive to a multiple viewpoint, thousand points of light society supposing it's not gamed, used to prop up this monopoly of thought or that, as basic observation demonstrates.
3
How did Coleman and Sanford get chosen to decide what high school students should learn? What’s special about them?
13
Whilst changes in this direction are to be lauded, the numbers affected are too few to really move the needle. There are roughly 25 million people aged 14 - 19 in the US (as of 2017, according to the Census Bureau), most of whom are in school; yet, the article states that only 15,000 girls took the Computer course. Even assuming 100,000 nation-wide enrolled in the course, that's 0.4%, and I'd guess course in US government has fewer enrolled.
So though I am in no sense criticising the College Board reforms, more important is properly funding all schools and reforming the curriculum so that as many of our pupils as possible have the basic skills to successfully operate in today's world. And if that means making education funding a state responsibility rather than a local one, financed primarily through property taxes, so be it.
Reading deeply and widely makes the mind supple and engaged in the world. Where is that ability touted in this binary, reductive vision of AP? How did Harvard drop-out Zuckerberg’s incomplete humanities education but ever so creative skills at coding foster democratic principles and civility or understanding for our constitution? I think I need a Gail Collins multiple choice style column to answer for me here — as my ability to take multiple choice tests (a key part of AP assessment) is really put to use then.
4
As a university computer science (CS) prof, while I agree that learning CS is hugely empowering for young people, I need to complain that 1) the author seems to be shilling for the College Board, and 2) the AP program - and high school in general - is often not a good place to learn CS.
One intractable issue of high school CS is the lack of teachers who truly know CS, yet are willing to work for a quarter the salary that people who truly know CS could make at Google. Despite the standard lie that AP courses are truly at the college level, the standard response from college intro CS profs I know is that they would prefer that their students *not* have taken AP CS.
As evidence: question 1 from the new CS "principles" practice exam seems an immediate betrayal of the high-minded ideals ("learn to be a shaper of your environment") the article (and the College Board) claims to espouse. See for yourself if spending a year learning to answer questions like the following would feel empowering to a teenager:
A video-streaming Web site uses 32-bit integers to count the number of times each video has been played. In anticipation of some videos being played more times than can be represented with 32 bits, the Web site is planning to change to 64-bit integers for the counter. Which of the following best describes the result of using 64-bit integers instead of 32-bit integers?
A) 2 times as many values can be represented.
B) 32 times as many-
C) 2^32 times as many-
D) 32^2 times as many-
3
Yet another article by Mr. Friedman that outlines his vision of the future and how students should be drilled to cope with it.
Thank God I was born in 1945!
5
Computer coding involves working with machines and is like doing a brake job on a car.
It reduces the time a person has to do human activities such as interacting with other humans, interacting with the natural world or contemplating ideas.
A few years ago I learned that the Amish have nothing against machines. They just believe that using machines reduces human interactions. Talking in person is more of a human contact than talking over the phone.
Texting and Facebook give people more contacts but they are very superficial and more likely to be destructive.
Before people understood cocaine, it was an ingredient in Coca Cola.
It’s likely that social media will be regulated once its full effects are understood.
Computers, and the Robber Barons they created, have been unregulated because we are still in the grip of the Age of Reagan with its superstitious belief in free markets.
In Rome slaves could learn engineering, but only free people could study the Liberal Arts.
Liberal Arts majors should write the specs, and engineers should do the coding.
8
We all need to learn how ecosystems work. That’s the “code” that sustains us.
5
I have a B.A. and M.A. in English Language and Literature, and an M.B.A. in Finance. After having spent thirty years in academia, finance and consulting, I have one suggestion: learn how to write a sentence, a paragraph, a report; expand your vocabulary; learn how to persuade others through an understanding of rhetoric; pay attention to language, particularly the grand and expansive English language, an amalgam of so many other languages. If you do this, you will succeed.
20
The US constitution is anachronistic and above all not democratic! It will not survive in the current form much longer. Not only because it is unfair to the majority of Americans but the US is broke. It even has to borrow money to pay the interest on the money it borrows. When you say that the American children have a future studying computer code that is currently being automated through AI and big data it is really a false assumption by seniors with 20th century opinions and 20th century pensions. These kids don't have a future because their parents are apathetic and politically naive. The future is in Asia where family values superseeds individual gratification and governments of the people own the major share of the means of production. Sharing is caring and the US does not share with it youth it just loads them with debt.
4
So, according to this entity, coding and knowing the Constitution are the only parameters in achieving success? I don't think so. What happened to understanding the Natural world, in which we all reside, and should increasingly be held accountable to? To leave out that, which is paramount to our very survival as an afterthought, is perhaps a telltale sign of our future. And it doesn't bode well.
6
More nonsense from The College Board; it's like a trophy for every kiddie soccer team.
Mastering the Constitution used to be called civics. The document has fewer than 8,000 words. The seminal cases interpreting it are a weekend's reading.
Computer science is not science, and software engineering is not engineering. Absent solid grounding in math, first principles of engineering, and the work of Walter Shewhart, this so-called computer science expertise is simply training to become a consumer or a politician like Donald Trump.
12
@Mack
Shewhart!! Thank you! I spent five years in a quality department--no one in my chain of command seemed to know who he was.
@DL
Bill Creech did.
There I was, all set to be thrilled to find out what the Two Codes were going to be. And then the answer: how computers work and the U.S. Constitution. Well, that's about as humorous as learning from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" that the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything is . . . 42.
"Of all the skills and knowledge that we test young people for that we know are correlated with success in college and in life, which is the most important?" This is a flawed question.
Economic background has been proven to be the greatest single predictor of educational attainment and better life outcomes. And you can't test for that.
Nor can you test for "success in life," because there is no single definition of "success." Does "success" mean making billions of dollars, like Mark Zuckerberg? Does it mean winning six Super Bowls like Tom Brady? Does it mean being productive and feeling fulfilled? To each his/her own.
What I look for in hiring someone is that person's ability to read and think critically, to write persuasively, and to speak clearly and confidently. I also look for inquisitiveness, maturity, and real passion for the job. And most importantly, I look for genuine empathy and a commitment to making the world a better place in some meaningful way.
If the College Board is happy with its Two Codes, so be it, but as a highly successful professional who can't balance my checkbook, I think this is just another fad.
14
Two observations/questions about the article - first, why is this confined only to students taking AP classes? Shouldn't we be encouraging such education for all? Second, "It had to start in high school" is absolutely wrong. As with any skill or attitude, waiting even that long makes it too late. Anyone who's ever seem elementary school students take to coding know we're missing the bus if an introduction to computing is delayed until high school.
3
Despite the high tone here, this information is mostly useful to successfully navigate academia as a student. As someone in the comments pointed out, though, academic success doesn’t necessarily translate into success in life. Kids should be aware of this slant in the SATs if they want to do well at the academic game. But they should also be aware that some of the most successful people dropped out of school or just didn’t have much formal education. They knew what they wanted, they concentrated their energy and focus on that, and they got it. Simple. Sort of. Luck and fate play roles as well.
2
"Codes", huh?
The same label for two very different sorts of cognitive exercise.
One, a set of procedures for the creation of a sub-code in strict accordance with how AI machine language works at the time of learning, any wider context irrelevant.
The other, a fait accompli, a document encoded centuries ago, whose perceived current relevance makes demands on the interpretative acumen, the sensitivity to context of the decoder.
Both types of (de-)coding useful, I suppose, at least until robots start writing programs for us. High school students can be taught to appreciate the difference, I trust.
And, if programming by humans is obsolescent, what sort of techno-savvy will take its place? Don't kids need to be asked to consider that?
As for "success" in college/life: how about a nodding acquaintance with a skill, a species of know-how, that is unlikely to become digitized within the foreseeable future?
Speaking from experience: I don’t know code, but I know how to control my impulses, manage money, think several steps out, read emotions (mine and others), and learn from failures while doggedly pursuing my vision.
Because of those life skills (along with a bit of blind luck), I own the company that hires the coders.
While I agree that we can and should be doing a much better job at preparing our children for the rapidly evolving world, I’m convinced that has less to do with “the science of computers” and more to do with “the art of living.”
And while it may be tempting to dismiss such things as being outside the scope of formal education, I couldn’t disagree more powerfully. From parents to teachers to the very institutions of education, everyone has a major role to play in cultivating the next generation of rounded, dynamic, self-aware and empathic citizens who are able to maximize their own gifts and talents, whatever they may be.
7
How can it be that developing an app is cast in this report as the only way to pursue an interest in fields of vast and rich complexity?
2
Disagree.
Reading/literacy first. This is the foundation of learning. There are plenty of college students who have subpar reading comprehension.
Writing second. No you don't want to know what I have read from university students. I think it's cute that everyone seems to assume these two are 'givens' for undergrads.
8
College Board has to be one of the worst monopolies in high school education. With them being the sole provider of AP exams, Clep exams, the PSAT and the SAT the sheer amount of money and effort spent by school districts, Home schoolers and parents on these exams is quite ridiculous. The variety in the quality of the courses, whether colleges accept them and now their changing requirements seem to have no controls or oversight whatsover. The revisions made to the World History course was pathetic to say the least. And after the changes made to US history the idea that they see the US Constitution as suddenly so important - I'm sorry, this smacks of just another way to get our kids to take more of their exams.
5
So, when I went to school we were taught to support our “conclusions” with a compelling argument based on facts. I don’t see any such thing in this article. What is the reader supposed to take away from the heads of the College Board making a conclusion based on nothing? And why should they be influencing what our children study anyway? Seems like a sell job. Which is what the College Board is all about, as anyone with a child applying to college knows all to well. In addition to the high fees, registering for a test requires that you click through the vast array of learning products they sell, and then past a detailed questionnaire which they no doubt monitize. And most likely your child will get their first introduction to enormous quantities of spam from college self-promotion ad nausea.
8
"Besides revamping the government course and the exam on that subject, Coleman and Sanford in 2014 made a staple of the regular SAT a long reading comprehension passage from one of the founding documents, such as the Constitution, or another important piece of democracy, like a great presidential speech."
A "long reading comprehension passage" ... "from one of the founding documents, such as the Constitution"?
Good for Donald Trump that he doesn't have to take the SAT.
Unless... the "great presidential speech" features rambling repetitive word salad. That, he could do.
1
The biggest key to success in life is to not allow your emotions to dictate your actions. This is really, really hard for most people.
7
I like the silver bullet notion of two codes. It is fun. Learning JAVA must be exciting for today’s students. Rapidly approaching familiarity with AI robots might actually be a path to riches for those who can acquire and program them in school. It is curious where the “handyman” aspect of tomorrow’s world that might materializet for kids today. For example, learning how to work on a Tesla, such as electronic repair shop, instead of lathe techniques. , Kids today might get enthused about state of the art homebuilding which is also full of technological ingredients that should invigorate the brightest kids,and give technological edge to those who can build on technology, before they graduate high school. Doing all of this without chip implants in the brain is interesting too.
2
Why just AP classes. I'd argue that college-bound students have many other ways to pick up this knowledge, but those who only have HS, tech school, or community college educations need an understanding just as much or more than their university-bound peers.
2
Isn't the College Board forgetting something of planetary proportions?
We need to equip our entire school-going generation with the essential--no, the Vital--third code: a broad, and gradually, deep study of Anthropogenic Climate Change encompassing Earth science, urban ecology, etc. There is no greater collective deficiency in knowledge other than this, and no other need that is more urgent.
Even the best lawyers, change makers, and computer scientists will be affected by disasters! Our health, our fortune, and our quality of life will be affected by it.
Now is the time for human beings to fundamentally shift focus. As a mom, I say: Let's bring awareness and cutting-edge knowledge to our kids. As a high school teacher, I say: Educators, lead with foresight so that we can mitigate Climate Change to the best of our human abilities.
6
'The Two Codes' described in this Opinion merit attention from parents, educators and students. But 'David Coleman, president of the College Board, and Stefanie Sanford, its chief of global policy', the leaders spearheading the educational importance of these 'codes', need to read the comments here. Many parent commenting expressed their hostility for The College Board. Their animus was real and seemed to overpowered their ability to think about the importance of having a deep understanding of the First Amendment and of how computers work. The College Board appears to have collected an army of enemies. Is it deserved?
5
@F. McB Yes.
2
Let's forget the kids for a minute, it's Mr. Friedman and his fellow columnists at the nytimes that need to know these codes, which are the science of global warming/climate change (Science) and the philosophy, backed up by studies in political economics, of Distributive Justice (the Constitution). You can start by reading "A Theory of Justice" by John Rawls. The basic concepts are: "the difference principle" and "the veil of ignorance". As a clue, Bill Gate's/Warren Buffett's private foundation, making their gained wealth available for the betterment of all is an example of the difference principle. But these are two outliers--government is barely doing this now. Progressive taxation is under attack; the recent tax cuts are a direct attack on the difference principle, and inheritance taxes, even on capital gains that have never been taxed, hardly exist.
The veil of ignorance is those choosing as a matter of principle of government, without the bias of their own position, what would be best even for future generations, and is seen in the Constitution in the separation of powers, and that it can be amended. Here again, serious attack. Republicans have gamed the system using "money is speech" to pack the Supreme Court. And elements from slavery laws (2nd Amendment, Electoral College) still haunt us. Bias is laws favoring oil.
Science: Put an interactive globe in front of you every day showing a new or continuing aspect of GWCC. Then, teach this to your readers.
5
I teach rhetoric and composition at a UC institution. I have two daughters ages 10 & 13. I am heartened to see responses here noting that the ability to think critically and write well are of primary importance in education. I may be biased, but I agree. Understanding code (which, by the way, I do) and the Constitution (which I also do) are integral to certain areas of our citizenship; but absolutely not what the foundation of middle and high school education should be about. This focus seems narrow and contributes to the selective and transitory mentality of education today. If students are taught critical thinking and analysis as their foundation, they will excel in every other discipline and career.
34
I am all for computer science (as opposed to playing games on computers) and US Constitution. But I would add traditional math, to develop the ability to crack difficult problems.
As to the US Constitution, the young people should be able to understand the difference between something engraved in stone, such as the Ten Commandments, and a document setting out the principles of democratic state, that may have to be modified as time progresses.
Why are there 33 Amendments and were all of them needed? How come the Founding Fathers overlooked some important cases, such as not inserting in the 2nd Amendment the words EVERYWHERE AND ALWAYS, with reference to the right of bearing arms? How come the Prohibition could at all come about?
I am sure that constitutional scholars have a long list of inconsistencies, some introduced into the Constitution and later amended.
3
You know, I get that this is just an attempt to stay relevant and market itself on the part of the College Board, but I'll take it--anything that emphasizes civics is desperately needed these days. As for CS, I think that sounds like a good approach too.
2
I agree with many of the criticisms here, but I think computer science is great for kids anyway.
Is the College Board, and the AP program in particular, harmful to kids? Yes! The worst way is that kids who want to succeed have way too much stress and too little sleep; most rely heavily on caffeine and some rely on Adderall.
When I was a kid, we took one AP course in whatever most interested us. Today, admissions officers expect to see a dozen AP courses. We make it worse by adding a point to the grade on an AP class, so a student who gets straight As in non-AP classes, for a 4.0 average, ranks lower than students who manage nearly but not entirely As in AP classes, with a 4.7 average.
But, as someone who very much enjoyed my AP calculus class as a kid, I also think all-AP schools hurt kids by effectively lowering the level of the AP classes. Every single kid in my calculus class loved math and was very good at it. That's not the case any more, so the teachers have to make the class work for the future English majors also.
I don't think the trouble with the College Board is simple greed. It's that they worship "replicability": making sure that a kid's score doesn't depend on who read his or her paper. (The SATs are multiple choice and machine graded, but AP exams are partly free-response and have to be read by a human being.) So the grading criteria are rigid and simplistic.
But really the College Board is not to blame; it's the universities' admissions policies. ...
3
... Next topic, is the column simplistic? Yes, of course. There aren't two magic topics that make you better than anything else. There aren't ten such topics. I'll go out on a limb and say that there is no specific thing that everyone needs to know! (I say this partly because I skipped a grade in elementary school and therefore never studied the multiplication table. And I lived.)
The very worst thing about education in the US today--okay, tied with teaching "creationism"--is that the schedule is so crowded with requirements that there's no room for electives. The only way to get a new subject, such as computer science, into schools is to find a way to make it a requirement. Hence, branding CS Principles as an AP subject. Really, if we were building a CS curriculum with lots of flexibility in teaching schedules, this would be a normal high school elective.
So, yes, all the rhetoric about needing CS for the future job market is misleading and harmful. (And, of course, the part about the Constitution seems to purport to prove that only people in the US have a future.) It's been tactically useful, because powerful people, in government or in business, often don't understand talk about helping students learn to think analytically, but do understand talk about jobs, Democrats and Republicans alike. But, yes, people in India, or wherever the next batch of people trying to escape poverty come from, can do the programming jobs at a tenth the cost of people in the US...
1
Our constitution is one of the oldest in the world and is seriously outdated in many ways. It is also a deeply flawed document. Perhaps it is more important for our students to read other countries constiutions and then compare and contrast and then discuss: What is a real democracy? what is true equality? What is real freedom?
10
This is a bunch of hot air, if I've ever heard it. To the extent that this plan to focus on the "two codes" will have any appreciable effect on education in America it will undoubtedly be a negative one.
Students hoping to attend a real university need to get a real education in high school, which includes foundational knowledge of math, science, history, foreign languages, and the modern-day world and a moderate ability to understand difficult texts and to write academic prose. That's an education. And genuinely acquiring one is plenty of work for a typical high school student. Gimmicks like the "two codes" are at best a distraction.
20
If you're smart, you don't take a computer science course--you just go on the internet and learn it on your own if you feel the need to do so. My kid, a high-schooler who is studying topology, will teach himself computer science should the need arise. It hasn't yet.
Civics is trivial if you have Brain 1. Skim the book and move on.
3
While an emphasis in unique or expanded areas of knowledge may be exciting news. It still doesn’t address the shortcomings of college entrance exams as whole. No matter what degree of information a student can regurgitate it does not correlate fully with his/her ability to problem solve post college. This is a fundamental to gaining success in the world at large.
Teamwork and communication, not coding. In my long career as a software professional, I found that the most important skills are the ability to listen to the customer, delegate work to teammates, give clear directions, and receive feedback. Some computer coder and politicians create a huge mess when they operate as an egotistical lone wolf - "only I can solve your problem" is always a recipe for chaos.
14
I think on average a good home probably provides the best educational codes to young kids. But the two codes do have its place in education. Computer science trains kids logic thinking. Constitution study broadens imagination and builds up ability of critical thinking. Except president Clinton, most recent presidents including president Trump all come from pretty good families. As far as I can guess, they will pass tests on one of the two codes but not both.
Laudable as these skills are, may I put in a plug for arithmetic?
Yesterday, a supermarket cashier charged me $1.25 for one reduced-for-quick-sale item marked at 2 for $3.00. When I pointed out the error, she giggled and informed me she wasn't a math major.
9
Computers again? What students need to learn desperately is language skills and critical thinking to be able to communicate their ideas efficiently from different perspectives. These are skills humanities courses develop that are useful as well in communicating scientific knowledge. Computer skills can be learned at any time in any setting and they cannot be implemented efficiently without clear communication.
8
I am intellectually handicapped I do not understand middle class and could never keep pace academically. I never could understand what was happening in the classroom so I sojourned to a place in my mind that was less chaotic.
I am 70 and I understand the constitution and how computers work. Americans for the most part know (understand) neither. When America talks to me about their constitution I cringe. It was written in the language of Samuel Johnson and all you need for understanding is his dictionary. Johnson 1775 letter to the American congress tells more about the revolution and the ethics and values than I am sure you learn in history class. All the sophistry and law degrees in the world isn't going to make understanding your constitution any clearer.
The computer code in my 70 years has gone from off/on to when do computers need the protections we offer biological sentient beings.
America doesn't need scientists it needs philosophers. Trump didn't choose America, America chose Trump.
Where are these scholars who understand the codes? Does America show them any respect? A society that knows to cost of everything and the value of nothing cannot begin to understand the importance of your constitution for all its faults it is the seminal document in human evolution in a language just being born.
9
What computer science is about is how to solve certain problems computationally. For example, how to sort a list of names alphabetically. Long division is an example of an algorithm most elementary students learn.
I think the bigger problem is not college bound students understanding, say, sorting algorithms, but being able to confront complex problems and break them down into parts and solve each part. This sort of problem solving is very important but can't be put into a test where each question is self contained. There are also no clear or optimal answers so it's hard to judge.
I've been working at building software for 20 years and it is easy to hire very average computer programmers but rare to find those who are able to come up with elegant solutions to complex areas. I guess it's the same with any field.
12
Can't we expect kids to learn about the Constitution and basic Internet and computer stuff and also learn a great deal about history, geography, math, physics, chemistry, languages, literature, music and art?
5
Learning to write lines of code is about like learning to write lines of text. Neither really amounts to much. Really learning to program is like really learning to write. Both teach you important things about how to think, how to express yourself, how to understand the world, and how to make things happen in the world. We don’t need everyone to know how to code, but we need more people who can do the rest of those things.
7
Better than these would be to close down the last year or two of high school and with the money saved require all students to leave America (or Canada) for one year, and they must provide proof of having been for this period in a foreign country where people live on $2 or less a day. Travel funds and a modest stipend should do the trick.
370
@Toronto
Isn't that the fundamental description of the Peace Corps?
So you simply want volunteering mandated. Sad but true: that would make for a lot of young, vulnerable targets out there in the big, wide world...
19
@Toronto I get that your heart is probably in the right place, but that idea is absolutely ridiculous. Just summarily drop the last two years of high school, because who needs that anyway? That's absurd.
22
@Mensabutt
Even sadder & truer are places like Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland, and other places where young, vulnerable students were targets here.
23
Although I'm glad to know that the College Board is now focusing on emphasizing skills that are more useful to students in their futures, it doesn't compensate for the fact that their company is built off making money from students. As a high school senior, I will have taken 10 AP classes by the time I graduate. Some of them—calculus, chemistry, and English literature—have proven to worthwhile classes, while others such as human geography focus on the blind memorization of terms. Yet, regardless of the quality of the class, each exam costs $90 and weeks of stress and studying.
I dislike how AP classes prompt students to prioritize passing a test over being intellectually engaged with the course material. For many AP classes, my peers and I worry about getting a 4 or 5 on the exam, rather than retaining what we learn. In my Spanish Literature class this year, we are flying through the long list of texts the course expects us to cover but lacking time to thoughtfully focus on each text.
The College Board knowingly feeds students into a system where they feel pressured to take AP classes rather than a class that truly piques their interest. High school students are told that AP classes look good on their transcripts while applying to college and therefore students take AP classes because they are an "AP."
One last note—if the College Board is a non-profit, then why does its CEO get paid more than a million dollars each year?
1733
@Sabrina C. Thank you very much with your view from the trenches Sabrina. The College Board is by no means a disinterested group who promotes education - shamefully for a columnist as well regard as Tom Friedman this reads as a PR piece for a very strange institution.
234
@Sabrina C.
Oooooh, thank you for your third paragraph. It is 100% true, and it makes my blood boil. If anyone has any ideas on how to remove CB's tentacles from education, please sign me up.
178
While it may look good on a college search to have a few AP classes on your resume, I think you have been misled. It isn't necessary to take ten classes. Four to five would have sufficed.
73
This is an oversimplification of a very complicated issue. Page through the comments here and you will find many good suggestions of the skills needed to be successful. Like many here, I think that coding and learning about the Constitution are important skills, but there are many others that are more important that can lead to success. You can be skilled in something but if you lack the life skills needed to be able to obtain and keep a job (any job), then those skills don’t amount to much.
I also, like many here, struggle with the source of this advice. Have you seen what College Board has done to the AP US History exam? That test is a travesty. It is hard to believe that the organization that has made a mockery of US History supports a constructive view of the Constitution. Let’s face it, they are trying to get more people to take their tests.
PS Have you seen the new payment schedule for next school year. Pay for the test by November or pay more in a “late fee”.
422
@Ted
It is a gross oversimplification. That's why it's great fodder for pundits and great PR for the College Board.
9
@Ted
I think you have the shoe on the wrong foot. While life skills are important, you can have them in spades and not get a job. You have to be able to “do the math,” or equivalent, for the job; otherwise life skills won’t get you very far.
If I had to choose, I’d rather hire or work with someone a little rough around the edges who could ace the job than someone who was nicer but not as competent.
1
@Ted The best skills for holding a job and getting promotions are those taught children by parents long before the school system gets them--so they are ingrained in one's personality & thought patterns, not forced or artificial: Employers want people of whatever age & profession who want to be there, will actively listen to, comprehend, respect, & comply with directions and goals, will obey both explicit & implicit rules (and morality), have a positive attitude about the job & work, are not angry but kind to coworkers & staff (try to fit in), who accept their position in the hierarchy & are productive, who are hygienic & dress for success (incredibly important and many people seem not to understand the significance to most employers), and who can accept criticism and do their best to improve, with no--or minimal--excuses...
If a child is taught these things (work ethics, psychology, common sense), they will find success in any part-time job while in school & in any career. Promotions will come their way in all jobs except when bosses simply dislike them for personal reasons (things from sexism or racism to jealousy & fear of competition--that's when they need to look for employment elsewhere, BEFORE quitting). It's the best gift any parent can give their kids.
3
Critical thinking skills will prepare young people for whatever comes their way. Oh, and the College Board? The SAT has competition. The ACT is on your heels and spreading quickly. Have your child try both and see which one is the best score. They are very different tests. One of our kids had the equivalent of a 100 point advantage with the ACT. If you have to take a test to get to the next step, may as well play the game to your advantage.
119
@Karen--And kids can take each one more than once. Our son never had any AP classes, as they are not offered in our very rural area, at least not a few years ago. And he never took any prep courses either, for the same reason. But he did take the SAT several times and the ACT once. His best SAT and only ACT were as exactly equivalent as they could be.
5
@Karen
Your last statement is spot on--"play the game". I was appalled when my oldest son took the "practice" in high school. We went to a meeting to have results explained and they began to sell us classes that would improve scores. We were told that the classes would help students "figure out how to take the exam." What a scam.
As a teacher, I see the pressure students feel to take AP courses and how fast they move through the material. I agree with you, Karen. No critical thinking is required.
4
I encouraged my son to study computer programming at school for two years; it's a great idea.
But the best part of his school years was extra-curricular music. He prioritized that over academics, and has no regrets.
393
@jzu
Good for him. Multiple psychological studies have shown consistently that unless a child is exposed to music and art, he/she grows up to be very self-centered, unable to sympathize with others, and are devoid of compassion.
9
@JustJeff
Bravo for him! He helps us remember to put the "A" for "Arts" in STEM education. Make that STEAM.
14
Finally, someone is moving toward a balance between jobs and citizenship. I’ve long argued that Social Studies in high school is way more important than currently thought (it’s rarely found on state graduation exams). Contemporarary World Problems should be a 9th grade class, not relegated to second semester senior year. And AP Language—argumentation—as applied to current political issues, with its requirement for credible evidence, clear reasoning, qualifiers, backing, and acknowledgement of relevant exceptions, is critical for anyone confronted with the nonsense he or she gets on a daily basis.
184
@DC I teach social studies to 12yr olds and would argue that my students are already confronted with nonsense on a daily basis. The sooner we start helping them think critically and speak powerfully, the better.
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As AI gets more sophisticated, the need for most of us to write and read raw code will be diminished. Alexa, Google or various post-processing software can do the coding for us. Yes, I realize there may be some human oversight of AI to generate code, but as computers become more sophisticated, you will need less people to do the raw code writing.
I spent much of my professional career writing CNC code for manufacturing machines, and much of the manual code writing in this area is now replaced by software tools. So less people are needed. It's the same in lots of other tech areas.
I would be happy to see more people take up a career in conflict resolution. Conflict seems to be a growth area among people as well as countries.
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@Nial McCabe The people who program those AI systems have many skills far beyond the trivial aspects of coding. Most importantly, they understand statistics, a counterintuitive subject that requires intense study.
It's too bad that code.org brought "coding" into the national vocabulary. Writing code is the least of what a programmer does. Debugging the code, and designing a good user interface, are much more important.
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@Nial McCabe I'd argue that the growing prevalence and sophistication of advanced systems makes it even more important to understand how the underlying code works. Not to learn any particular language or to get any particular job "coding" but to understand how the machines that increasingly run our lives and societies operate. I learned BASIC on a VIC-20 in second grade and that knowledge (along with Pascal, HTML, Javascript, CSS, SQL, and other scripting, coding, and information structures) has served as the foundation for a very successful and wide-ranging career in both technical (webmaster, database designer) and non-technical (sales, customer service, management and executive leadership) roles. The fact that I've ever written a line of BASIC code for money is irrelevant to the value I've derived from understanding how it works.
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@Nial McCabe
The only thing that hints of optimism in the coming world of A.I. is the certainty that humans will not go without a fight. The coming "monkey wrench gangs" ought to be great fun to watch.
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My two : being born in a high end zip code and having the right set of parents
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Also excellent health, mental and physical; no serious trauma; limited exposure to neurotoxins; and a healthy dose of good luck.
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@Dr K
My one:
Having access to the internet and the willpower to learn marketable skills.
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@Dr K What is proposed in Friedman's column attempts to transcend the tony zip code and the chance of birth for everyone else.
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“Understanding how government works is the essence of power. To be a strong citizen, you need to know how the structures of our government work and how to operate within them.”
This goes beyond just understanding the constitution and is truly what is important. Understanding the constitution is certainly part of this, but there is oh so much more. The ignorance of the population about how our government works displayed in the past several years is appalling. Bring back civics as a separate and mandatory course in high school.
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@Jerry in NH You are so right! It drives me nuts when I read in the Comments in the NYTImes (one assumes perhaps a bit above the average citizen?) that "we need to get rid of the Electoral College before the next election". Really? Do they truly have no idea that this means a Constitutional Amendment and that they can take years (even decades) to achieve. We badly need Civics to be taught again, and it must start in elementary school and continue in middle and high school.
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@India
I think most people who comment understand what it takes to get rid of the Electoral College. We have to start the process now.
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@Jean
And understand the consequences of starting the process? If a Constitutional Convention then possibly the destruction of the very document being "corrected?"
As evidence simply turn to the (final) history of the Articles of Confederation.
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Sure, those two things. And Science. And Mathematics. And Sociology. And the Golden Rule. And how to read entertaining works such as books, novels and plays with a little poetry thrown in.
What an awful testament to studying to a purpose (get high SAT scores) vs. a general education lead by knowledgeable teachers to inspire our youth to look and enjoy things they currently have no interest in.
Maybe this was a report with good intentions, but to read the headline or first couple paragraphs, the message is clear that you need to concentrate on just a couple things to not only be successful in college but life.
I would argue differently.
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@reid Agreed. In addition to a specific skill set, a broad knowledge base, critical thinking skills and a strong moral and ethical compass are essential. Otherwise, it's just gonna be "garbage in, garbage out," as the old saying goes.
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@reid Necessary..... but not sufficient.
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I agree with @reid. As a refugee from higher education administration, specifically data analytics, I can tell you so called insights from the College Board are expensive, overrated, unnecessary, and now damaging. Coding has its place, but its shouldn't be the reason you go to university.
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I am alway suspicious of simple explanations regarding complex issues. There are of course some problems that have simple answers, but it seems a bit of a stretch to claim that only two factors are the key to work and life success.
I have no doubt that understanding the Constitution and knowing how to work effectively with computers are very valuable skills. Over many years of working, I have also learned that the ability to speak clearly, read with good comprehension, and write using good grammar and syntax are extremely valuable skills that are useful in almost any job or situation. As too many others have also pointed out, those with emotional maturity and sensitivity to others always do better than those who seem oblivious of others. There are many aspects of personality and skill that make a productive and successful person, and it is not seem terribly helpful to over-simplify.
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@James
You write "I have also learned that the ability to ... write using good grammar and syntax ... [is] useful in almost any job or situation."
I agree.
I teach academic writing to international graduate students. At first, they resent spending time honing their skills. It helps to point out that students who write well get more respect, better references and recommendations, more trust, better TA assignments, and often, more grant money for PhD candidates.
I tell them it's unjust, yes, because good writing tells nothing about one's knowledge in one's field, and it has nothing to do with one's ethics. Yet it's true -- good writers gain more.
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@James, Trump would be the exception that proves the rule.
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@James
Clearly Trump could have used your advice.
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The Constitution: very important. I have a copy of Akhil Reed Amar's "America's Constitution" in my reference section. But unfortunately, nowadays, if in the course of a political discussion, someone refers to the Constitution, you don't think, good, someone is going to introduce an important insight here. No, you think, oh, no, one of those obsessive Constitution fanatics who thinks he will settle everything by referring to one phrase. Maybe just one word. End of story. It's not always that bad, but realistically, there's a lot of that going around.
I hope what they teach about the Constitution isn't just the inner structure, and key paragraphs, but also the unwritten context that has made it meaningful in different ways over the years, how it's been interpreted differently in different eras. The varying interpretations being as important as the actual amendments, or more so.
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AP Gov etc. is a great class and can tie in current events..but what kids really need is a return to a solid science curriculum and one that is not just for the kids on the AP tract. These constant debates about Vaccines, and Climate Change, and Creationism being taught as another possible explanation to human evolution - make me believe that our science curriculum must have been gutted after we won the Space Race!
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The overwhelming majority of students will never write a single line of code after leaving school. Worse, if they learned it in their junior year, the code they learned will be outdated before they start their first job.
Understanding computers is important, but the ability to write a few lines of a particular code doesn't take on there.
The Constitution is not much better. Constitutional law is a complex subject in law school. Someone who just reads the Constitution knows almost nothing about how it is interpreted. However, they too often think that they know what the words "must mean" and go off in total misunderstanding.
Now civics is a fine subject, something a good citizen needs to know, but reading the Constitution won't take the student there.
Computers and public life are important subjects, but it has been oversimplified here to an absurdity.
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If I was going to come up with a few narrow topics which would ensure success in the American future, personal finance and macroeconomics would top the list. There are plenty of computer programmers and political activists, but neither field is for everyone. However, everyone is going to need to manage their 401K and understand the basics of money and investing. This is taught poorly or not at all by our educational system, and the result is that we have generations of people who can't manage the daily transactions of life.
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@Mike You are correct that other topics are also important but they are not suggesting everyone becomes a computer programmer or political activist. They are saying that a knowledge of how computers work and can be programmed to accomplish relevant tasks the user needs done is increasingly becoming essential for many, and soon, most professions (I am adding this includes the arts and things previously not thought of as having any association with computers). Additionally, knowledge of how our government works is essential for all citizens to be in command of the government rather than commanded by it. It would, among many other things, prevent the widespread acceptance of obvious disregard of the constitution by intelligence services & police officers. Two thirds of American adults are unable to even name the three branches of our government: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. I am a firm believer in capitalism and the right & need of people to keep most of their incomes instead of being taxed to extremes - I believe it is a prime driver of growth and innovation & without it stagnation is inevitable. But the impoverishment of the middle and lower economic classes in the last 40 years; an era of vastly increased productivity alongside huge gains in wealth by only the rich (who collectively have bought the levers of power so now only their legislative wishes become reality) will lead to the US to revolution that will cost us all dearly unless the citizenry becomes empowered.
Am I the only person who came away from the column believing that Coleman and Sanford just made this stuff up?
I'm sure, at least I hope, that the CB used good and serious data to make these changes and not just the hopeful hunches of two of its officers.
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Let me suggest an alternative reason why learning to code helps people to succeed. It is not so much that our world is dominated by computers, rather it is because coding requires logic. You have to begin by understanding exactly what you want to accomplish, then break that down into incremental steps. Many of these steps involves logic: no computer program lacking an IF...THEN statement is worth bothering with. At least in my experience (as a scientist), it also inevitably involves math.
Few of us end up working as computer programmers. But would it surprise anyone that the ability to think logically is one of the keys to success?
(OK, I'll concede that our president's lack of ability to think logically rivals his ignorance of the Constitution - but most of us don't have the head start he had).
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Does a nurse really need to learn how to code? An emergency room nurse? A history teacher? An attorney? A journalist? I can go on. Unless you want to teach coding or learn how to create apps, one does not really need to know how to write code. I certainly am all for every student graduating high school and knowing the Constitution, not only by rote memory, but how it truly is the foundation of our laws: what the federal can do with respect to the individual, and what the government cannot do, such as prevent freedom of expression.
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@Edward Quigley: Seems to me you entirely missed the point of learning computer science.
It teaches a lot of lessons that can be applied to every discipline you cited.
Kids will learn how to create a plan, research, implement a plan, use logic, troubleshoot, puzzle solve, reason, think in if-then terms and exercise the part of the brain that learns language.
Seems to me you weren't taught computer science as your thinking is entirely "inside the box" and you need someone like me to spell it all out for you. Good luck and keep in mind, it's not too late to take a course.
You could have also surmised that Coleman and Sanford earn their living (and spend their career) researching this subject, and their conclusions are based on sound evidence.
@cantbelieverepubs Computer science is not the only way to learn those skills. For example, learning to cook will also teach research, creating a plan, improvising, using logic, etc. even if one is not creating but simply using recipes. Figuring out how to extract information from a primary history document teaches some of those skills also. I know some basic coding and have several relatives who studied computer science and work in tech (including my mom at one point) but those skills can be taught in other fields, not just CS.
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In such dark times, it's a refreshing change to see some signs of positive progress.
"I am an optimist. I see little use in being anything else." - Winston Churchill
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To a liberal-minded reader, and in the *abstract*, it all sounds rather up-lifting, Thomas.
But, book-learning is book-learning -- no written guarantee that what's learned in order to do well in an exam will be applied in real life as it is lived outside the academy -- beyond, that is, a "+" in the exam, college admissions, an highlight on one's resumé.
So, how many real, not just "learners", but "learneds", does the new curriculum produce -- people who can not only program in several computer languages (employers may well focus on this), but can also lucidly explain how the US Constitution might be interpreted, with respect to a complex issue of personal rights? Oh, perhaps a handful of bright kids, well-spoken kids .
Remember Volunteers of America -- Peace Corps, if you were willing to serve overseas?
Why not encourage a year or two *non*-military service, *prior* to college application? This would give talented, likely monied, kids an out-from-under-the-bubble experience of what some of the rest of the country/globe they inhabit is really like, as opposed to the in-class experience of mock courts in the Civics classes of upper echelon private high schools.
Not a few of us seem to think our education equips us to deal with the world, without, however, ever having really experienced that world; "we know", the assumption runs, "because we learned in good schools".
Just one of many grand american delusions, breath-takingly exemplified by our current chief of state.
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What a breath of fresh air. So often we hear people saying what's wrong. It's refreshing to hear someone advocate for fundamental knowledge and skills that can help make things right.
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"able to not only navigate society and its institutions but also to improve and shape them, and not just be shaped by them"
This is such an important point. In this entrepreneurial economy in which we're increasingly called on to define rather than be defined by the institutions we depend on, this awareness is key.
Thanks for this.
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I agree kinda. Computer science and the constitution are a wonderful basis for progressing further in education, but can they read, write and speak to convey their thoughts to others. I have found in our business that communication, spoken, written and reading more impotent than any other skill. It is rare that I get an employee that is articulated in communication. And sadly enough, it is also the one skill set that they are lacking in achieving through out their employment.
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None of that matters if students don’t know how to read, write, critically think, reason, and cogently express themselves. Additionally, education in world history, philosophy, as well as the sciences, are of critical importance to the well-being of future generations. They may be computer-literate, but the level of general ignorance that I have personally encountered amongst college age students is both staggering and frightening.
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Computer science is not going to save us from ourselves. Computers, including AI, will amplify the worse of human intentions. AI will be weaponized to achieve political (geopolitical) objectives. The College Board is making a big mistake! We need humanities and social sciences now more than ever! Cognitive neuroscience and social psychology has made great strides in helping us understand why humans act against our common interests (e.g., ignoring climate change). Those types of disciplines should be the foundation. Who will save us from the narrow-minded of the College Board.
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The two things I look for most when interviewing:
eye contact and a good handshake with a smile.
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Perhaps a few is us “adults” should take these courses. Perhaps a prerequisite to vote or perhaps to...tweet.
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I think a much better approach would be to do away with the SAT college boards altogether.
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We have been asking at college fairs and, yes, many more than you would guess will accept portfolios of work and longer interview. Especially for homeschoolers -which counts toward their diversity!
A test bound to produce mediocrity
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This article reeks of the attitudes causing the catastrophic divide in American Life. Yay-the AP kids are going to be even farther ahead of the proles!!!
Does Mr. Friedman not see that this attitude is why Trump won? Part of the reason, anyway.
We are turning into a nation of intellectual Spartiates and a mass of helots, doomed to struggle in a sort of half life.
This cannot be sustained.
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