Genius hour

Mildly off-topic post tonight.

My daughter's grade did their "Genius Hour" presentations this evening. They basically get an hour a week in school to research whatever subject interests them and then they put together a display of their results for perusal by the parents. Many of them were quite good. Yaya's presentation was on LGBT rights in general and gender identity specifically. It's a subject she's been wrestling with and she did a pretty fair job of framing it. (No, I'm not outing my daughter; she may be conflicted, but she's sure not shy about it).

Anyway, one of the other kids had a presentation on why learning to write code is such a great thing. His argument basically boiled down to "you're guaranteed a job."

Well, I certainly wasn't going to debate him on that point because it seemed that he really did think programming was fun and, if that's true, you pretty much are guaranteed a job. Unfortunately, there still are way too many young folks picking majors who believe that the skill without passion is all that's required.

I do know a few uninspired programmers who manage to get enough done that their employers find it easier to keep them on than go through the hassle of firing them. Most leave on their own volition (or switch to non-programming roles within the same organization). However, employers are increasingly using right to hire contracts to make sure that programmers are able to cut it before making a perm offer. I wouldn't think you'd have to bomb out on too many of those before contracting firms would get sick of placing you. Simply put, if you don't love this stuff, you probably won't last. And, even if you do hold onto a job, you won't be well paid. Junior programmers really don't make that much and you won't get promoted unless you show some initiative.

In 1990, I had a student at Mount Union who seemed to be of average intelligence, but was doing terribly in a programming class I was teaching. I asked her why she was majoring in Computer Science since it didn't appear to interest her much. She said her dad had pushed her into it so she could get a good job. That's just sad and it's still going on today.

I turns out, she did have a passion for a subject; it just had nothing to do with Computer Science. She switched her major to Art and, upon graduating, got a job as a graphic designer. I don't know if that worked out or not, but I do know that she left school eager to get at it and such individuals tend to succeed.

I wish Yaya's classmate success. But mostly I wish for him what I wish for all kids (and adults, for that matter): that he finds what he loves.