Teaching Computer Science

Disadvantaged students face a wide range of problems on a daily basis which they must navigate before they ever have a chance to enter the classroom. As a veteran teacher in the Cleveland Municipal School District (ranked 602 out of 608 in the state) I witness first-hand how my students face poverty, hour long commutes (one way) to school on public transportation, and persistent threats to their safety.

I'm lucky to teach in a specialized STEM-centric school. If my students were at a different high school in the district it's possible that they would go through their day without even touching a computer. And if they DID have access to a computer, it would be ancient technology locked down by antiquated and often-misguided IT governance.

By contrast, at my school all of the 11th graders take my computer science class, where they learn to program Python on Raspberry Pi computers. Nothing is locked down (unless I, the teacher, wants it to be locked down).

Learning to program hits so many educational benchmarks. Critical thinking is a huge aspect of programming. The programming projects in my class help students exercise those critical thinking skills that also help out in other classes. And while not a substitute for reading, writing, social studies, and mathematics, all of these subject areas play key roles in in my class.

Python's simple syntax makes it the ideal programming language to teach. More than any other language I've encountered, which admittedly isn't much, Python code is readable and writable. Struggling students still find that the examples make sense, and advanced students can go ahead at their own pace. It may be possible that Python is helping my students graduate from high school, and ultimately save them from a life a poverty.