Comment Think back (Score 1) 1104
It's because barriers to entry in the comp sci field are so f'ing high anymore. Think back, I mean really think back, to before you were a programming god (hard, I know). Chances are Java was not big yet, QBASIC and Pascal was taught in high school, and C++ was *the* language in college. Object-oriented programming was *hard* to get, much harder than pointers, but once you got it, you could be assured that you'd be in a great field, making good money, working on intelligent and cool things, likely on a single platform. Now there's so much buzz, so many languages, an acronym for everything (even AJAX -- please?), an API of the month, and so many aspects of comp sci, who the hell would want to go into the field? Couple that with schools' insistance on pummeling you with two years of physics, calculus, and random bs electives before you get your hands on some real programming, and you've got some sparse numbers of comp sci majors by Junior year (don't even start about the mandatory 3.0 GPA requirement by mid-sophomore year at any decent school). Kids are OVERWHELMED. When you're in high school and college, and you're worried about making the "right choice," you want to make sure you'll "be alright" when you get through that 4+ years of college. That equates to knowledge that'll last you more than a month (before all the recruiters say they're looking for a new acronym), a shot at 'mastering' something, and fulfillment. Oh, and uh, you might want a girlfriend, and to drink and enjoy yourself in college, and some of your study-time might be taken by a part-time job to pay your bills anyways. So when socially-impared and arrogant professors gloss over complex subjects with the attitude of "if you can't learn this on your own time, than you shouldn't be in the program," then you just might bail on the program.
Step out of the perception of well, I know everything now, and HTML is easy, we need to teach these kids the 'real deal'. HTML is HARD compared to many other things school kids may be hobbying with right now -- and put yourself in the perspective of a kid who can choose between comp sci, and *other* fields -- there ARE other attractive fields. If you want to do web apps, sorry, you don't need two years of physics and calc II and III to do it. You might want a lot of electives though on digital imaging, Java, Perl, C, SQL, and project management. They need to bust the field up into several fields -- and I don't mean "information sciences" vs. "computer science" -- if you want any hope of a major in it meaning anything. If you want to graduate from school with some competency in your field, you can't choose comp sci anymore.
Step out of the perception of well, I know everything now, and HTML is easy, we need to teach these kids the 'real deal'. HTML is HARD compared to many other things school kids may be hobbying with right now -- and put yourself in the perspective of a kid who can choose between comp sci, and *other* fields -- there ARE other attractive fields. If you want to do web apps, sorry, you don't need two years of physics and calc II and III to do it. You might want a lot of electives though on digital imaging, Java, Perl, C, SQL, and project management. They need to bust the field up into several fields -- and I don't mean "information sciences" vs. "computer science" -- if you want any hope of a major in it meaning anything. If you want to graduate from school with some competency in your field, you can't choose comp sci anymore.
