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Comment by wobbleblob | Hacker News Reader

> "with President Obama pushing for legislation to include computer science in every public-school curriculum."

Computer science or computer literacy? The latter would probably be quite useful.

Well whatever he pushes for, the Republicans will oppose it, so he should have been pushing for more computer surveillance in schools.

> "I would no more urge everyone to learn to program than I would urge everyone to learn to plumb."

Agreed, but I would expect everyone to know how to flush a toilet. I think computer literacy is essential, not for your kid's career, but for your kid's life.

Being able to fix your own sink is actually a useful skill.

Duct tape.

With a large enough roll you could rule the universe.

Similarly, plumbing literacy is very broadly useful. Even if you never become a professional plumber, you will probably benefit if you can figure out why a toilet or sink is not working as expected.

Yeah, if you turn the pressure off and are careful, you can do a lot of poking around. Like with computers. Turn the power off, and you can poke around quite a bit. Not so much with phones and modern day laptops though :/

The public school curriculum was designed to prepare students for employment, which many would consider mercenary but I find perfectly reasonable. It's entirely within the spirit of public education in the US to require computer literacy at the primary level and computer science at the secondary level.

I don't understand the aversion to teaching people things specifically because it will help them on a job. Education should prepare people to lead fulfilling lives as part of a peaceful, cohesive society. Knowing how to solve other people's problems is a huge part of that in a society where not all work is done by robots.

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