William W

Olympia, WA

03 November, 2016

The Next President of the United States

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Next President:

My name is William and I have been learning to program since I was 10 years old but I had to find programming on my own. Our school system should have a beginner programming class. In this world, people rely heavily on technology yet This is an issue because one won't have people moving into the realm of computer science or programming when it is an ever-expanding field that will soon be giant. I have tried to make small differences in this by asking for books in the library and trying to get a coding club after school. Places around the world have already started doing this. However, these are small steps and there is a larger systemic problem in that Americans will not be able to compete in the future marketplace if they do not know how to code. They will not be able to have secure discourse. Lastly, they will not be able to fight for the rights of the less able.

America’s Current Situation

The school system needs to introduce students to programming and how the internet works by having at least a beginner class to code and the internet instead of just teaching us new programs. The United Kingdom has already started working on this problem. They have introduced a beginner class for grades K-6. However, the U.S. still lacks computer education as a requirement in schools. Non Coding required job openings are usually filled in 33 days whereas coding required jobs are filled in about 55 days. This shows how few workers are qualified for the main source of jobs in the future. I find myself having to learn to code outside of school using valuable tools such as Khan Academy and Code Academy.

Securing our future

Security - A better world would be where students have coding as a required class to help us navigate through the internet safely. This would help us have more security for our nation's computers and for the public to feel safer about their security and privacy. If we had more security testers (Red team and Blue team) we might even be able to have a secure way to vote online. Red team and blue team are a fundamental concept that teaches how to find problems in a computer system where Red team are the attackers of a business server and the blue team is the protects. Red team and Blue team is taught at some college levels but this should be taught and used at the high school level as well. If we have more programmers like Steve Wozniak to help progress current tech and progress the nation in the direction of a safer internet away from griefers, trolls, and cyber bullies without compromising freedoms of people who are doing right in the system such as justice warriors.

The Future Economy is in computer programming. Computer programming will eventually shape this world using Robots, Social Media, Encryption, and much more. By 2020 computer science jobs are expected to increase by 22%. This means that eventually our whole world will be encompassed in more tech and that programming will be a needed more than anything. With that means that we also need more education for programming.

Sincerely, William W

Your First Name

William

Works Cited

“Canadian schools starting to teach computer coding to kids.” Record, The (Kitchener/Cambridge/Waterloo, ON) 30 Apr. 2014:Points of View Reference Center. Web. 4 Nov. 2016.

Crelin, Joy. “Teaching Children To Code: Overview.” Points Of View: Teaching Children To Code (2015): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 4 Nov. 2016.