Interview with Chiara Shah ~ Computer Science teacher @ Emma Willard School

After a sit-down conversation with Ms. Shah, Emma Willard's Computer Science Teacher, she and I debunked how and why computer science seems like an intimidating subject to many teens...especially girls.

Ms. Shah's former student claims "Learning how to code helps your dreams come true." That being said, it is painful to see fear and accessibly prevent women and people of minority backgrounds from pursuing such a life-changing skill. When we think of coding, it is likely that an antisocial teenage boy holed up in his room, hacking away, comes to mind. Ms. Shah believes this stereotype often discourages anyone beyond the assumed demographic to pursue computer science. There aren't enough people encouraging girls to pursue computer science and to push beyond their comfort zone. It can be intimidating to pursue a field in which you don't see many people like yourself working. Ms. Shah thinks that having computer science as a high school graduation requirement could be a step in the right direction. She also acknowledges that there are not many teachers who are qualified to teach AP Computer Science A and other Computer Science electives. Ms. Shah and I believe a required computer science training for teachers would help this issue. It takes a combined effort to close a gender gap as wide as that in the tech industry, and Ms. Shah believes that it is up to both teachers and students to spread the love of computer science. More teachers should commit to teaching the skill to young people so that a wider range of students are exposed to and see others like themselves pursuing computer science.

Below are statistics on the demographics of AP Computer Science Exam takers in high school. Note the clear inequality between females and males, especially those of color:

All graphs taken from: https://code.org/promote/ap