The Hidden Agenda of Code.org

Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, President Obama, and a slew of celebrities are somehow part of an operation called Code.org, which promotes teaching kids to code. Supposedly coding is good for you and the initiative might actually get the young folks interested in computer science.

I see it as a ploy to sell more computers to schools. For the most part, middle schoolers—and even high schoolers—do not need to be taking computer science classes. These kids can't even balance a checkbook or write in cursive, and they don't get out nearly enough as it is. What's the point of teaching computer science when all they really want to do is go on Facebook and see what their friends are doing?

Many schools have cut art, music, cooking, home management, and countless other practical studies from the curriculum. So let's teach them to code instead! They can get jobs as coders, right? Wrong.

Code.org is dumb and if you want to see how dumb it is, watch some videos on its Tumblr. The worst of the group, if any single one can be highlighted, may be Bill Gates' because a disclaimer under the video reads: "Note: the quality of this video doesn't make for the best viewing. But we wanted to make sure to share for those interested in Bill's insight."

In other words, Gates didn't even care enough about this project to provide decent video. It seems Jack Dorsey is equally as unconcerned. He sounds as if he is in a bucket talking on a $5 microphone. He's a billionaire but he makes it clear he has better things to do with his time.

So what's the point of all this? America wants more students to gravitate toward STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math. This is turning out to be harder than anyone in power expected.

For one thing, boys and girls are dissuaded by the social norms to care about STEM. They look around, see that too many people in these fields are unemployed, and they bail.

And the American curriculum is being dumbed down, proven by declining test scores despite teaching for these tests. Kids can't find Missouri on a map but these code folks are pushing for the schools to buy computers and tablets. Maybe that will help—help the computer companies' bottom line, that is!

Based on what's popular on TV, the media only extols the virtues of singing, not the virtues of a STEM education. Teens are more likely to be watching and admiring some idiot driving his bike off a roof on You Tube than anything else.

And does anyone notice that STEM is very limiting? Yes, "science" can be all encompassing, but does it include or preclude "technology" and "engineering"? And is math a science or not? What about physics, chemistry, or biology? Plant pathology, embryology, biophysics, astrophysics, or astronomy? Is statistics part of science or not? What about anthropology? Why the moniker STEM? Because it's cute?

Where does computer animation fit in to the scheme of things? It's science and it's art, not to mention it involves coding. Why not funnel kids into this field, where they could probably find work or start a company?

But instead, people want to keep all this as simplistic and brain-dead as possible in hopes of selling more computers to rubes to teach computer science. Ugh.

Microsoft, which coincidentally has two employees working on Code.org, wants to hire more cheap workers from India. The company promotes expanding the H-1B visa program. Its lack of interest in the American coder stands out like a sore thumb.

If anyone should be up in arms—or a key part of the program—it should be Adobe. High schools should be teaching Photoshop and Illustrator.

What I'm seeing from this Code.org and STEM promotion is a non-starter for almost every child in school today. It's a dead end and the sooner people realize it, the better.