Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own challenges that it is hard to extend our focus beyond our immediate concerns. For some reason, though, just when we are buried about as deeply as we can be in the issues of the moment, something comes along and hits us over the head and reminds us of the limitations of our viewpoint. This summer there have been two events that have brought this home to me in a profound way.
On June 28, I took part in a special panel session at NECC focusing on international perspectives on high school computer science curricula. This session, chaired by CSTA Curriculum Committee Chair Anita Verno and sponsored by the National Science Foundation, is part of a larger project to help us find successful models for developing and implementing a national computer science curriculum.
The panel featured several speakers from different countries, each of which had already begun implementing a comprehensive curriculum for computer science. Anita spoke about CSTA’s efforts to support the ACM Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science, Dr. Judith Gal-Ezer discussed Israel’s highly successful CS curriculum, Jackie Martin described Scotland’s national curriculum, Mike Chiles addressed South Africa’s new national curriculum, and I spoke about the comprehensive curriculum implemented in Ontario, Canada, in 2000.
As each speaker addressed the implementation phase of her/his curriculum development process, it became increasingly clear that countries who were further ahead in this effort than the United States had discovered several key factors that needed to be in place in order for the curriculum to succeed. These included a reasonable implementation time line, access to adequate resources (functioning hardware, support materials, textbooks), and professional development for teachers.
All of these are important considerations for CSTA to address as we attempt to improve computer science education. But something else happened at the presentation. Mike Chiles, the Director of Information and Technological Services at the Western Cape Education Department in South Africa, reminded us, in the gentlest of ways, of the cost of focusing too closely on our own concerns. South Africa, he explained, faces a unique challenge in its efforts to ensure an adequate supply of trained computer science teachers. The HIV/AIDS pandemic raging across Africa is taking the lives of so many teachers, and so many technically skilled people in business and industry, that it is not possible to find enough teachers for the classrooms. And then it hit us, speakers and audience alike. It is not just some “them” dying in a far away place. It is “us.” Teachers are dying. And I do not know what to do.
And now, we have a similar reminder much closer to home. A part of this country lies in ruins, families lost, homes destroyed, children, adults, and even pets displaced and afraid, their lives in tatters. This hurricane and its aftermath are testing as at our most foundational level, and in a country as generous as this, I do not believe that the people will be found wanting.
In Texas, everything is big, including the hearts of its people, and our friends at TCEA are already putting together a Task Force to help schools get their technology back up and running. This is the right thing to do. To offer what it is we know how to do best in the service of others. And I have promised TCEA’s Executive Director Ron Cravey ([email protected]) that CSTA will be there to help in any way that we can.
Right now, there are important things that you can do. Donate money to the Red Cross, to the Salvation Army, to the Humane Society, and to the many organizations that are tending to bodies and souls. Organize something in your school, your community, or your city. And when we let you know how you can help us help them, please answer our call.
There are things we can do to help and doing something is always better than doing nothing. Find a way to show how thankful you are for all that you have by helping those who now have nothing.
Resources:
www.unicefusa.org
www.tcea.org
www.redcross.org
www.salvationarmyusa.org
www.hsus.org
Chris