A Compiler for Every Child
Fri Feb 8, 2008 10:30AM EST
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With a presidential campaign in full swing, education is in the spotlight of would-be chief executives of the US of A. When talking about education, they tend to be talking about No Child Left Behind, the Bush administration's first-term educational initiative.
Now it's hard to argue with the idea that kids should not be left behind. We can all agree on that. But what about moving children ahead, far ahead, so that they can compete, and help the USA compete, in the next few years? Globalization is here to stay, but the USA's place in the world is very much up for grabs. Even more so when it comes to keeping the lead in technology.
Case in point. CodeGear, a leading developer of software development tools and one of the few companies other than Microsoft that is still in the market, just sold a million copies of its latest development tools for use in education. This is spectacularly good news for those lucky primary and secondary school kids because they can use professional-grade tools to learn the latest high tech skills.
The surprise moment is that the kids benefiting from this massive effort live in Russia. The million copies are part of a $100 million initiative in Russia called the National and State Project for High Grade Education. The mission is to build the backbone for 21st century education. In US schools programming is an elective at best, introduced much later than primary school. And there hasn't been much of a serious initiative since BASIC language.
In the US, we've prided ourselves on technological edge. We have at least four regions of the country (Silicon Valley, the Seattle area, the Route 128 area near Boston, and the research triangle in North Carolina) in which tech drives the economy and helps maintain our world leadership. What we don't have is a national vision for tech education. Nobody in Washington is calling on CodeGear to deliver C++ compilers and Delphi tools to the 15 million kids in public high schools in the USA.
I'm sure CodeGear is more than ready to offer the US a good deal, but first we need to think about tempering No Child Left Behind with All Children Move Forward.
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2 Posted by j75ogden on Fri Feb 8, 2008 7:26PM EST Report Abuse
And you think that Russia has an extra 10 thousand programing instructors just laying around? Russia is trying to give there students a chance at a better life with a better education. BUT, you nead the support of the schools, teachers, parents, and students plus the Hardware to make it all work. 1 million software licenses alone is not enough to turn out 1 million new programers. Now, I will say that some of the best programers in the world come from those old eastern-block -istan's. How much can you earn as a laborer in Russia? How much can you "earn" as a Hacker/Cracker that can access 1000 bank accounts every month??? The motivation and desire is there. Is there the correct ethical, governmental, and economical support in Russia to support 1 million new programers? Where are all these new programers going to end up in three to five years from now? I'm not saying the sky is falling. I'm just looking at cause and effect. Assume 1 million new Russian programers over the next 3 to 8 years. Are they going to stay in Russia? What types of jobs would they get in what countries? I will say that Globalization is here to stay, and our children in the US of A will NEED to stay ahead of their counterparts in China, India, Russia, Europe, and other contries through out the world. We don't take education as seriously here in the US as in other countries. Our Higher Education is still excellent, but our primary and secondary schools are in need. I also understand how other contries have split their students up into tech-schools and the University Prep schools, so that test scores between the US and say Germany are not and can not be equal. ie: 1. Students with high academic potential can go to a "Gymnasium"; 2. Students of lesser potential are placed in either a "Realschule" or 3. "Hauptschule". In the "Gymnasium" you have 13 years of school, in the "Realschule" you have 10, and in the "Hauptschule" you have 9. from http://library.thinkquest.org/18802/gerskole.htm Similar types of systems are found most contries today, Except the US. All students of all abilities are pushed through the same system with the same class if possible. This has blog post has gotten out of hand and I apologize for it's length. The final Question I would ask is this: Are we, as a Nation, fully preparing our children to compete against the best and brightest the world has to offer? Thank You.
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3 Posted by mccheese0112 on Sat Feb 9, 2008 11:03PM EST Report Abuse
Despite the spelling errors, J75ogdens points are all spot on. The primary and secondary schools in the U.S. are a joke. The only way to turn things around is to focus them on productive output. That really means emulating European models to an extent. We need to leave the possibility of college open to everyone. But for those that have no interest in it at 14 there need to be real alternatives that lead to real employability after graduation. The school systems should be producing plumbers as well as programmers - not just graduates who are college bound and McDonald's fodder.
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4 Posted by nguyen_dang818 on Sun Feb 10, 2008 9:42AM EST Report Abuse
Bạn Thuận lớp mình đây!
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5 Posted by drooleyma on Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:11AM EST Report Abuse
I far from STUPID, but how about some ENGLLISH!
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1 Posted by kupriaa1 on Fri Feb 8, 2008 3:24PM EST Report Abuse
In some cases companies like Microsoft and Borland have provided these tools to students for extremely reduced costs or the tools are provided to the school systems for reduced costs. As far as K-12 schools- I am not sure that we have the teachers in place to correctly teach this technology. Its not just about the tools.