Kansas State University professor Nathan Bean has always struggled with the stereotype of programmers. It’s been reinforced in pop culture since the late 70s — the nerdy boy who spends more time with the computers in his mother’s basement than with the “real world.”
Bean doesn’t find the cliché very funny. He’s a programmer himself, and he fears that this negative perception is causing a lack of programmers in the United States. The coding education organization Code.org predicts that by 2020 there will be 1.5 million U.S. programming jobs. Yet there will only be 400,000 educated professionals to fill those jobs.
“The deficit is really worrying because programming is such a vital part of industry,” Bean said. “It’s basically using codes to create computer programs. That can be a game, or it can be a program to manage a business or an experiment. It keeps our technology-fueled economy running, yet there’s hardly any interest in youth to become programmers.”
This lack of interest in coding is something that East programming teacher Deb Pontier sees on a daily basis. Her four programming classes hardly pull 15 students a piece, with a disconcerting lack of female students.
“I cheer if I get two girls in one class,” Pontier said. “I just don’t think it’s marketed well enough to students when they’re young. Most of my students are doing it because that’s what they want to do with their lives, and they’ve wanted to do that for a while.”
Junior Matt Nestler, one of the few programming students at East, is already planning on pursuing a job in programming and web design. The freedom that comes with coding and programming has always been appealing to Nestler.
”When it comes to computers, you can choose to be someone who just goes to the computer and uses it, or you can be the person who actually creates,” Nestler said. “It’s the choice between being a consumer and a producer. I want to be a producer.”
The industry that Nestler looks forward to entering is expanding. The U.S. is the top programming country in the world, bolstered by industry moguls like Facebook, Twitter and Google. But programming isn’t just for videogames and cell phone apps anymore. It’s infiltrating every aspect of business, medicine, science and finance.
Algorithm programs control the stock markets’ fluctuations. Computer prototypes allow biology researchers to make calculated decisions. Businesses use programs to decide which advertisement entices customers more.
Because of these real-world applications, Bean believes that programming is becoming essential. The new demands of companies is contributing to the expanding gap between programming jobs and professionals to fill those jobs.
“It’s becoming necessary; almost every organization needs at least one programmer,” Bean said. “There is so much need and demand, and we simply can’t supply that. We need to spark young people’s interest, because programming isn’t just a bonus anymore — it’s a necessity.”
Pontier believes that students might become more interested in the profession through an early education in programming. As other countries — including Estonia, India and Britain — continue to make coding an educational priority, Pontier hopes to see the same in the United States. She wants the district to implement summer courses for middle schoolers and focus on pulling more girls into the program through specialized camps.
In a September 2012 article, Wired Magazine writer Klint Finley demanded more from the U.S. education system. Finley’s article praised the Estonian public school system, which requires coding education in grades 1-12. The curriculum was made to support Estonia’s “burgeoning tech industry,” which is famous for Skype. Finley stated that the United States would need to make similar steps to keep up.
Bringing programming education into grades 1-12 would be a drastic change from where curriculum currently is. Only nine states in the country require programming to graduate, and Kansas is not one of those. Pontier says that East is lucky to be one of the few schools in the state to have programming classes.
Programming curriculum is hard to come by, but despite figures and the opinions of teachers like Pontier, Principal Karl Krawitz believes that the district will not make any changes.
“I definitely see where this education would be greatly beneficial and important,” Krawitz said. “But requiring that class would require more teachers and more classrooms and more computers, and the district is simply not in the position for that right now.”
These budgetary concerns don’t sway Bean’s opinion. No matter what, he believes that programming education must be increased to maintain and improve the country’s position at the top of the economical food chain.
“Right now, the lack of education is so discouraging,” Bean said. “This industry makes huge differences in the world on a daily basis. Why shouldn’t everyone have access to that?”
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