We Must Still Teach Computer Science in High School

The tl;dr is simply this “We don’t teach physics in high school in order to create more professional physicists.”

I’ve said that for years and it is true. Teaching CS in high school should not be to create more professional computer scientists, programmers, software developers or professional anything. Just as we teach physics to help students to understand the world they live in, we should teach computer science to help students understand the world they live in. Neither the hype or the reality of artificial intelligence mean that students will not be working with computers in the future. If anything, students are more likely to be more involved with computers in the future.

So yes, AI can write code. The determination on how good that code is is really yet to be determined. There are lots of indications that it is not that good right now.

I was reading an article in The Atlantic titled “There’s Never Been a Better Time to Study Computer Science” that says some interesting things. For example, Valerie Barr, a computer scientist at Bard College, is quoted as saying “You cannot make effective use of AI tools if you don’t know something about what you’re asking the tools to do”

Talks with people using AI in software development suggest that understanding software development is important in getting the most out of AI code development. But getting away from people whose job it is to develop software, pretty much everyone is going to be using or interfacing with AI in the future. Understanding what is behind it all has to be helpful in getting the most out of AI.

Now we’re going to see a lot of changes in curriculum both in K-12 and higher education. I think we need less change in K-12. Oh, sure, add some things about using AI and AI prompting. Basic fundamental concepts are still important though. Understanding what is behind AI is still important. That will help people understand the potentials and limits that will still exist. More than that, those principles are important for extending what computing can do. You can’t build a skyscraper without a strong foundation.