George Boardman nails it

George Rebane

Columnist and RR reader George Boardman wrote an excellent and timely critique of California’s STEM education available today in our secondary schools.  Not only did he present relevant stats on the status of courses offered across the state, he also gave a chilling summary of the new revisionist history and social studies subjects that are being emphasized.  Mr Boardman makes the point that California is no longer educating the technology workforce for industries for which we are still recognized.  It seems that now Silicon Valley imports its talent from other states and countries.

Under the state’s progressive tsunami, we are diving for the mud in more areas than can be tracked.  The collectivist mindset has become a plague across the land, and most virulent in the now cynically named Golden State.  The themes in Mr Boardman’s observations have been a constant in these pages for the life of RR, and I welcome its reprise in our community’s newspaper, no matter that it was relegated to the bottom half of his entire offering that opened with some local vanilla-flavored fare.

…

Oh what the hell, here’s the relevant part of the column filched from the 25jul16 Union.  I can hardly wait for the screams from the Left.  (Truth be told, I’m envious that I didn’t submit the very same article.)

WHAT’S IMPORTANT?

California technology companies have made numerous, important contributions to the computer-driven world we live in today. Much of that work was done in Silicon Valley, a major driver of the state’s economy. 

The world’s sixth largest economy will have to fill an estimated 200,000 information technology jobs in the next 10 years, as well as numerous other well-paid positions that will require computer skills that aren’t being taught in California’s high schools today. 

About 35,000 public high school students were enrolled in courses dedicated to computer programming or computer science last school year, according to state figures. Another 22,000 were in engineering or technology courses that likely involve learning computer code. There are 2 million high school students in California. 

“Folks are kind of shocked that California is not one of the states that you talk about when you talk about good computer science policy,” said Amy Kirotaka of Code.org, a nonprofit that promotes computer science education. “We haven’t seen anything come out of California in the way we have other states.” 

This makes it difficult for public high school students — a majority of them non-white — to be full participants in California’s increasingly technology driven economy. In fact, it’s one of the reasons cited by high tech companies to explain why they have so few blacks and Latinos in their workforce. 

Take Facebook, one of the least diverse companies in Silicon Valley. Maxine Williams, global head of diversity, points out that only one in four U.S. high schools teach computer science, making it difficult for students to acquire the skills they need to work for tech companies. (More high school students in Nevada County take drama classes than are enrolled in computer science classes, according to state figures.) 

But never mind that. California’s education establishment is busy revising history and social studies books to make sure everybody — and I mean everybody — gets their story told. 

Earlier this month, the state Board of Education approved changes in classroom instruction for K-8 students to enact state legislation that added LGBT Americans and people with disabilities to the list of social and ethnic groups whose contributions schools are supposed to teach. 

The law also prohibits classroom materials that reflect adversely on gays or particular religions. Second graders will learn about families with two moms or dads, and fourth graders will hear how Harvey Milk became a pioneering gay politician in San Francisco. 

Yet to be decided for K-12 students is how the new guidelines will discuss Muslims, Hindus and Jews, and such controversial subjects like Japan’s use of “comfort women” during World War II, or the killing of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey a century ago. 

All of this is designed to raise self-esteem and promote inclusiveness of all Americans. “It’s about people’s stories and for so long, the stories have been narrowly told,” said Eric Heins, president of the California Teachers Association. 

It’s too bad we’re not putting that kind of effort into improving the technology skills of those students. It’s been my experience that a sizable, regular paycheck does wonders for self-esteem. 

George Boardman lives at Lake of the Pines. His column is published Mondays by The Union. Write to him at [email protected]

Comments

[Todd Juvinall]

He did nail it. LBGT people need obs too but the education system only wants them to learn about their emotions and their "rights". What a state of elected idiots.

Did you read the unemployment article? Add up all those jobs of government. Looks like there are a lot of them in total. Funny how the Healthcare and education jobs are in the same category. Hmmm.

[Bill Tozer]

Ok, Boardman, it will give ya a 9.4 for that one. And please, keep poking all comers in the eye to keep us grounded. Ok, I will say it. Good job
.
But, but, but, if you want to get a 10 from me, just find the tape of Hilary last Monday, one week ago. That long, slow building, ever rising, culminating in the world's most hair standing on the back of the neck fingernails on the blackboard Screech of the Century set the bar. That is the standard if you want a 10. She killed it...you came close. Well done.

Psst. Boardman...what about my people? Not one mention? Jews, transgenders, Pigmy Eskimos get mentioned 100 times more than us Redskins. Whatz up with that? For that sin of omission, I gotta knock you down to a 9.2. Blood is thicker than water.....

[Gregory]

No, he didn't nail it but he did manage to pad out a column with some ideas from code.org, one of the groups that have sprung up with big tech money as penance for their inability to, for example, actually keep the women who actually started careers in tech but left for more attractive pastures because they didn't like what they found.

In Nevada County schools, taken as a whole, it isn't the lack of programming classes in K-12 that's keeping kids from software engineering careers... it's the lack of solid arithmetic in K-7 that kept them from attaining proficiency in Algebra in the 8th grade (or 9th, now that Common Core is adding a year to that sequence).

Schools that have not been competent in teaching math and science are grasping for straws; coding is just the latest bright and shiny object to hit education.

[Russ Steele]

I agree with Gregory, math preparation in K-12 is essential to college success in engineering. When I arrived at Idaho State and registered as an electrical engineering student, I had no Idea how ill-prepared I was to be an engineering student. I was not a great student and my teachers were not that demanding. A very bad combination for a potential engineering student. I do not think that Common Core is the solution.

[Bill Tozer]

Upon further review on new facts and information presented, I have you revise my Boardman Nails It score to 6.3. Thank you.

[Gregory]

"Maxine Williams, global head of diversity, points out that only one in four U.S. high schools teach computer science, making it difficult for students to acquire the skills they need to work for tech companies."

I doubt one in four US high schools have someone competent to teach computer science.

Ask Ms. Williams how many kids they hire right out of high school.

[George Rebane]

Upon review and reflection, my kudo to Mr Boardman stands. Of course, early math instruction is fundamental to all subsequent STEM pursuits including programming. (For years Rebane Doctrine has prescribed math-heavy early grades with history and social studies pushed into the later K-12 years.) Boardman’s column did not intend to cover the waterfront of STEM curriculum nor take any particular school district to task. But he did provide a needed highlight of California’s deficits in a couple of very important subject areas. So again, I’ll stick with his ‘nailing it’.

[Bill Tozer]

But, did he kill it? Well, well, well. Now we know who has Boardman's back. Gotta smoke 'em out. Smiley Face and have a good one.

[George Boardman]

Mr. Know-It-All is wrong again. I did not "pad out a column with ideas from Code.org." The piece was drawn from articles I've been collecting for several months and I decided to write something after the state Board of Education adopted new guidelines for social studies and history books. The point was to question our priorities when we are supposed to be preparing our children for the 21st century.

I've been accused of being a divisive force in the community, but I may be the only person who can forge a bond between Goodknight and Pelline: Each dislikes my column in The Union.

I take pride in creating common ground for two people who dislike each other, are convinced they are always right, and who share the rare ability to strut while seated. (To be fair, I have to concede that Goodknight occasionally fakes humility, something Pelline would never consider.)

I must be doing something right if I can annoy both of them.

[Don Bessee]

Now that's funny GB! ;-)

[rl crabb]

Keep it up,George.

[Bill Tozer]

Mr Boardman, the Bridge Across Troubled Waters, eh? Good job. Pleace out bro, dig your fro.

[Bill Tozer]

Mr. Boardman:
Ah, what we have here is one of those Peter, Paul & Mary moments. RL got your back as well. Boy, they are coming out of the woodwork now. :) .

Food for thought

"The trolls are not always the bad guys. Sometimes they are the only ones telling the truth."

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W7RrQ_WHLLk

[Gregory]

Geo. Boredman 1:23PM, you didn't quite get that quote right (cut and paste makes fewer errors, give it a try), and, unlike Pelline, I could probably count the number of times I've even remarked on your column on the fingers of Jerry Garcia's right hand. Most of my comments on your shortcomings have been regarding your snide comments here, not the mostly unremarkable pieces of yours in The Union.

Yes, the FUE has it in for you and I doubt he has a clue how small his crusade makes him look.

The only The Union columnist I ever got pissed at was Hank Starr maybe 10 years ago. I wrote a letter to the Editor detailing his gross partisan political witchhunt du jour and suggested they could find a number of left-liberals who could do Starr's job better. The editor apparently agreed with me and canned his ass, at least for a time.

The real fun was when I arrived to a lunch gathering of a group I belonged to only to find four other attendees, with Starr (I had no idea he was a member) crying in his beer about getting canned. It was both awkward and satisfying.

GR, the best in country (before they were abandoned) California Content Standards in math, crafted by truly fine research mathematicians from the likes of Stanford and Cal who, because of their interest in K-12 mathematics and alarm at the Common Core of the day, Whole or New-New or NCTM math. They put together a solid and practical sequence that led from 1st grade to a 12th grade AP Calculus BC, and in no grade was more than an hour a day in class.

The problem in K-12 math has not been quantity of time, it's been quality of time and of instructors, and math is just one facet of a quality school day.

[Bill Tozer]

In today's news,

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/07/28/bill-bennett-conservatives-ve-got-rare-opportunity-to-lead-on-education.html

Bill Bennett has made it his lifetime crusade. Of course, the devil is in the details. Another Bridge over troubled waters??

[Bill Tozer]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ThjM5JbK75M