[Edu-sig] Programming in High School

[kirby urner]

Re outsourcing, here I am in the capital of open source (Portland, per
Christian Science Monitor that time -- San Jose uncomfortable with
that, stealing back OSCON -- OK, OK, their turn, we agree), and yet
when push comes to shove, there's a rather tiny geek culture.

I find myself advising Symmetric to check with Aiste's POV in Vilnius,
as one of the more qualified shops, as we start scraping the bottom of
our barrel.  Jason got snatched away by idealist.org, whereas some
others don't have much experience, e.g. insist on working solo.

So I completely empathize with Intel, needing engineers from
elsewhere.  South Africa a good source.

It's not that I think Oregonians are stupid, just they've been sold a
bill of goods by the ETS army, made to jump through irrelevant hoops
to the point of ridiculousness, leaving good jobs going begging.

That's why we have Saturday Academy, to track at least a few talented
kids into a relevant curriculum for a change, no more of this pablum.
Not every city is so lucky.  Not every city has our Silicon Forest
(which extends northward to embrace Seattle, the Space Needle one of
our branding tools).

Anyway, looking forward to Chicago.  I've been thinking how corporate
trainers such as myself might inject a note of hilarity in adult
settings, even while staying on task with the Python.  Turns out
that's easy:  Flying Circus to the rescue.  We do little skits.
Here's a sample in my blog:
http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2008/12/car-czar.html

Kirby