Zoe Lofgren Helping Bring Computer Science to All Schools
UPDATE 5/29/15: clarified statements made by students as writer summary
Members of Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren’s office visited Lincoln on Friday, May 19th, to discuss the importance of AP Computer Science. The AP Computer Science students were expressing their opinions in regards to why and how Computer Science is a subject with big significance, especially in the modern society, where most of our lives rely on technology. Ms. Lofgren was at a congressional meeting, so she couldn’t attend.
The meeting lasted for about two hours and it was a follow-up to Ms. Lofgren’s visit to Lincoln on April 20th. Click here to see more information in regards to that visit.
Other people who attended the meeting were Mrs. Reid and her AP Computer Science students- Rodolfo Sanchez, Chloe Varlack, Avalon Parton, Emma Brown, Bozo Vareskic, Nora McGinley and Valerie Rios.
The office members, Michael Branson and Shirley Duong, both shared anecdotes about their path to education and how they got to where they are now. Mr. Branson explained that his first love was chemistry, but after experiencing how hard it was to find a job in that area, he finished Law school and decided to join politics.
The point of the meeting was to discuss how to make Computer Science more popular among students and possibly not just an elective subject. All students had their view of how this could be managed and they shared it with the office members.
Some of the suggestions, summarized below, made by students were:
Rudy: There should be a partnership between a company and school.
Chloe: Minorities (Women, African Americans, and Latinos) in high school should be exposed to Computer Science (CS) Education, since they are underrepresented in the Tech industry. There should also be early CS Education in lower grades below high school.
Avalon: Coding environments like Scratch should be taught to little kids.
Emma: Need to educate the public on what is CS. There are many interpretations and/or misunderstandings of what CS is. There needs to be an Early CS Education mindset.
Bozo: Other countries are requiring CS education requirements. For instance, Israel requires a minimum of 3 years of CS education. This is doable since Israel is a very small country, unlike the U.S., which is decentralized when it comes to national requirements for CS education.
Nora: In 2013 there was a Computer Science Education Act (2013) which allowed districts to reallocate money for purchasing technology or providing CS education. This did not provide extra money but give permission to use existing money for CS education.
Valerie: Government needs to advertise and promote CS education throughout the nation.
Emma/Bozo: Question is how to frame the wording of proposal so that it passes in Congress.
Emma: Do your research and be prepared when you meet with Congressional Staff. They were prepared. The team of students was prepared so that made the conversation worthwhile and meaningful.
Mrs. Reid was interviewed by Sam Van Zandt, morning host of 94.5 KBAY-FM, where she talked about CS along with her student, Chloe Varlack. You can listen to the interview in this story.
It is of great importance for Computer Science to have people like Zoe Lofgren and Sam Van Zandt endorse it. This way, it will reach more ears and it will give people a better view of how crucial this subject is.
Computer science is indeed very important, especially today, when most things rely on technology and computers. Hopefully, the proposals for CS expansion will pass and students will become more aware of this subject. Not many schools have AP CS and the situation will hopefully change soon.
Nikola Zivkovic is a 17 year old exchange student at Abraham Lincoln High School. Nikola is part of the senior class. He was born in Belgrade, Serbia....
