There’s no denying the fact that programming is not the job that it once was. With Microsoft recently laying off nearly 16,000 employees and Intel releasing 20,000, educators might wonder why the CSEd movement is still going strong.
Truthfully, the push for these skills was never about creating more employees for big tech. While the promise of large salaries was nice, the urgency behind the computer science movement had way more to do with all of the auxillary skills that come along with CS education. Persistence, debugging, computational thinking (and, yes, coding) are incredibly helpful in all aspects of life, and will continue to be, no matter what the future of the workforce looks like.
One might wonder, even if they agree that CS teaches lifelong skills, why should educators consider pulling computer science into non-CS classes. This, believe it or not, is an equity issue.
By embedding computer science into a variety of subjects…language arts, social studies, science, art, and beyond…we not only normalize it as a part of everyday learning, but we also create more on-ramps for students to explore and build confidence with it, without having to change their perceptions of who they are. We don’t have to convince Sam that they’re a computer scientist, only that computer science will help with their art.
Integrating CS doesn’t mean turning every class into a programming course. It means using CS concepts to support content that’s already being taught; like building simulations in science, analyzing trends in social studies data, or creating interactive stories in language arts.
This cross-disciplinary approach ensures that students aren’t just exposed to computer science, they’re immersed in it; organically, repeatedly, and in ways that show its relevance to the world that they’ll live in as adults. Students will begin to see CS not as a career track for a few, but as a thinking tool for everyone.
And when every teacher brings CS into their classroom, every student gets a chance to see themselves in it.
So yes, the tech industry will evolve. Job titles will change. But the need for thoughtful, curious, capable problem-solvers? That’s timeless. And helping students become those problem-solvers? That’s a job for all of us.
