A New School Code

With social, digital and online everything taking over every aspect of our lives, it’s not hard to believe school’s would notice the impact and follow suit. Check out Beaver County Day School, in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Beaver has become the first school to implement computer programming and coding into its standard curriculum. Beaver isn’t the only school experimenting with implementing these type of classes. Twenty schools in New York City, 10 middle and 10 high, are currently undergoing a ‘software engineering pilot’ this year. However, Beaver is the first to add coding classes to standard curriculum. Mashable recently interviewed Peter Hutton, Head of Beaver, who gave a clear and simple reason for the course additions. “Do schools need to change? Absolutely,” he says.”We’re still preparing our kids to go to work in 1988. Certainly not 2020.” The Boston Globe reported that, “Last year, only 713 students in the entire state took an advanced placement exam in computer science”. While, Georgetown University projects 51% of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) jobs will be computer focused by 2018. Obviously, demand for coders will outpace the supply unless educators take action. Introducing Computer Science programming and coding classes earlier rather than later is a wise move. Kudos to Beaver County Day School for taking the lead in preparing our future ‘Geeks’ for success!