There's a huge need for plumbers...

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So let's train lots of fluid dynamic scientists! Story here:

"A new state law aims to expand computer science education in high schools, something supporters say will help prepare Washington’s graduates to fill high-paying computer science jobs...

"Magendanz said that with new teacher training standards, students will be learning computer science in high school from instructors who genuinely know the field. Opening up scholarship funding for teachers who pursue computer science training should help improve the availability of computer science courses, he said."

If they really wanted to educate students for these jobs, which are almost all software engineering jobs, not "computer science" jobs, they would allow actual software engineers to teach software engineering, regardless of what degree they have. In my experience, the tie between:

1) possessing a computer science degree, and
2) being good at programming

are about as close as the tie between:

1) possessing a biology degree, and
2) being good at sex.

In fact, almost everyone of the very worst programmers I have ever met has had a computer science degree, and often an advanced computer science degree. It is not that these degrees make one a bad programmer but, rather, they sometimes so impress hiring managers that they cover up the fact that one is a bad programmer.

But I am pretty sure that the education establishment will not, in our lifetimes, surrender its focus on degrees, since a focus on degrees is what keeps the education establishment important!

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