Children's museum puts on girls-only programming class

It's a girls-only class because boys "dominate" programming classes. That simply doesn't follow. Boys "dominate" programming classes because they sign up for them, that's why. Holding girls-only classes won't have any effect on whether girls rush to sign up any more than putting on boys-only knitting classes will spur armies of male children to rush to pick up knitting needles. But logic/reason is the first thing to go when dealing with gender-agenda idealogues. Boys need useful skills for the workplace as much as girls. Subjecting them to gender discrimination like this is unfair to them and ultimately bad for everyone: it'll have zero effect on girls' interest in "that nerdy geeky computer stuff" and just closes off learning opportunities for boys who otherwise may have had them. Can our future workforce and country afford that?

There's another thing, too, and I've mentioned it before: every modern country in the world today is short of IT workers. This is because being an IT worker is stressful, requires an atypical attention to detail, a very task-focused mindset, and a number of other skills and abilities not usually found in one package. Some job roles require ppl to handle crises/emergencies regularly. Deadlines for project/task completion always loom and it's a truism that projects generally start already running behind schedule, said schedule usually being a best-guess estimate at best. Projects rarely finish on-time and at/under budget. Now, I am not saying it's like trying to find a PGA-level golfer in every checkout line at the store; what I am saying is that decent IT people, be they programmers, database admins/programmers, network admins, competent proj. mgrs. or administrative mgrs., etc., are not easy to find.

Every role in today's IT world requires ppl w/ some measure of a lot of skills: technical, interpersonal, organizational, etc. For IT mgt. especially, there's always a Domocles Sword hanging overhead. IT mgrs., it's been joked, get changed more frequently than the paper towels in the rest rooms. Obviously this is hyperbole, but the chronic overspent budgets and unmet expectations cycle that is typical of big corporate IT usually sees the day-to-day mgrs. taking the fall. As for CIOs, they can get changed pretty often, too, once abt every 4-5 yrs. The expectations are high (usually unreasonably so), and when a lot of companies aren't doing as well as they want to be, they scapegoat the CIO and/or the mgt. staff of the IT dept.

So with all the foregoing in mind, and the fact still that one actually has to *like* doing IT work and be competent at it, and be thus for years on end-- is it any reason the developed world is short on IT workers? Remember, if it's programming you're talking about, you have to a) want to do it, b) be good enough at it to get and keep a job doing it and c) want to stick with it. (For those unfamiliar with what computer code looks like, look here and ask yourself if you want to look at/deal with stuff like it all the time. What you're seeing is fairly pedestrian and is not much code at all. Most computer programs/applications are substantially larger and more complex. Now imagine you have to deal w/ that *and* you didn't even write it-- it's the product of someone else's "creative" mind.) And yeah, throw in the "soft skills" needed, too: play well with others in a "team environment", work well under deadline pressure, be able to learn rapidly new technology sets as-needed and become proficient w/ them fast, maybe also be willing to assume some "on-call" applications support duties, too, etc. That describes relatively few ppl from the general pop'n. It's amazing there are as many such ppl as there are.

Sometimes, ppl might say they think IT workers get paid "too much". Well, what's "too much" given the stuff they have to do and know? Do you want your checking acct. transactions correctly processed? Your paycheck/direct deposit correctly processed? Your medical records correctly stored/managed? All that requires very sophisticated and complex computer programming and IT systems administration and mgt. It can't readily be done by just anyone without a lot of technical training and the right personal traits and attitude toward the task.

And gender has *NOTHING* to do with it. You either can and want to be an IT worker-- or not. It's just that simple. No evil anti-female conspiracy. No evil patriarchy. No hegemonic evil downpressorman plan to oppress women. Just a lot of stressful, detail-oriented work with very little room, in many cases, for error.

Don't everyone all rush to join up at once.

The thing that gets me is that anyone who wants to code will code. You don't need a class or course for it. This "scratch" language - I just had a look. It's free, it's public, any kid with the inclination can just start fooling around with it.

Should I mention minecraft and redstone?

And any adult with the aptitude will - sooner or later - start writing macros in office packages.

A course of study can help, it can round out your knowledge, but it can't create an interest or aptitude that isn't already there. Particularly for coding, because coding is not something you know about, coding is something you *do*.