Liberation Through Education: Why Our Fight has Just Begun

"There is no such thing as a neutral education. Education either functions as an instrument to bring about conformity or freedom." - Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Mentoring students at the SMASH High School Hackathon on 10/19/24

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Participating in my first hackathon hosted by Goodie Nation in Spring 2015.

It has taken me several weeks to clarify my thoughts about this “brave new world” we are all soon to inhabit in the coming months. While the election results were disappointing, I have personally resolved that upskilling, acquiring, and sharing new knowledge are going to be essential in order to both take advantage of opportunities and to prepare for whatever may come. 

With the possibility of dismantling the Department of Education, credentials, degrees and certifications could possibly become more expensive and more out of reach. In order for job seekers to become and stay competitive in our constantly evolving tech industry, they may have to pay more upfront costs; costs which already inhibit career switchers, or new grads or boot camp grads. I worry about the limited options and additional hurdles that the next generation may face which didn’t exist when I was entering the industry. 

11 years ago, this week, I participated in a program called “Hour of Code”, which changed my entire career and life trajectory. This program was part of a national campaign for Computer Science Education week (which happens to be this week) and featured celebrities and influencers encouraging everyone to give coding a try via a fun, interactive, visual programming game. As you played the game, your moves generated small code blocks, which you could see and edit. The blocks would be displayed as a puzzle piece or could be viewed in their raw Java code form. I stayed awake overnight trying to move a zombie around a maze. By the time my code fully worked, I was hooked. I wanted to become one of the people who wrote code for a living, and used code to make the world a better place.

While the qualifications for being one of these people vary on a company by company basis, what is true for all is that you will have to learn, understand and eventually gain a mastery of the code being written so that you can make contributions to it. In this vein, automatic code generation tools backed by Google, ChatGPT, and more, may seem more poised than ever to replace actual engineers. Behind all of that code is a set of instructions that a human had to create and place in order.

As a student, this concept was mystifying. As a teacher, it’s what I try to emphasize the most. 

I’ve taught and mentored in so many different places over this past year, and with each of them, I emphasized to my students that the computer was only doing what they told it to do. Coding is also a learning process. From the time your first piece of code works, to the day you become a software architect and beyond, this work is a learning process.As long as you’re willing to learn, you will succeed.

Still, in times like these, we can’t just be willing to learn and absorb. We must also teach and share our knowledge and resources with our communities. 11 years ago, I was a young, curious student. This weekend, I will teach again, this time at an Hour of Code Workshop hosted by Science Engineering and Mathematics Link, Inc. To say this is a full circle moment is an understatement. My hope is that the circle will continue, not just beyond this weekend, but hopefully beyond the next 11 years.