Imagine what we could do if we took all that money we’re throwing away on ballparks and arenas and devoted it to something useful, like education. From an AP story:
Teaching kids to code is just as important as teaching them any other language. And the younger they start learning it, the better, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday.
Cook spoke to a group of New York third graders who visited a Manhattan Apple store for an “Hour of Code” class. In an interview afterward, he said that schools aren’t putting enough emphasis on computer-science education, but he has “great hope” that will change and coding will ultimately become a required class for all kids.
“From an economic standpoint the job segment itself today is huge, but it’s going to become even larger,” Cook said.
And if the concepts are introduced at a young age, in a fun way, it’s more likely that kids will find them cool and stay interested as they grow older, hopefully resulting in a larger and more diverse tech workforce down the road, he said.
Cook added that even if kids don’t grow up to get a lucrative job in the tech industry, they’ll discover a new way to be creative and pick up important problem-solving skills along the way.
Unfortunately, El Paso’s “leaders” are too worried about sky boxes and luxury suites to invest money in anything that might actually result in economic development.