Computer Science and the Well-rounded Life
I found this essay by Marie Klawe on her being an artist and a computer scientist thanks to the Wicked Teacher of the West (who is not very wicked in real life.) Maria Klawe is transitioning from being the Dean of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University to being the President of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. Harvey Mudd is a very serious computer science school and if you don’t know of it you may want to look into it.
The essay is a good one and it points out how someone can be a computer person and still have other interests. Too many kids seem to think that computer science people are only interested in computers. They think that either they will have to give up other interests or that they will not be working with other people with diverse interests. That doesn’t’ go over very well with most people. They want to have multiple interests.
The good news is that of course computer scientists have multiple interests. I know computer scientists who are into boating (including doing most of the wood work on a large sailboat), some who are interested in sports (I’m talking things like playing hockey BTW which seems to be very popular among some computer people), and others who are into food. I know CS people who not only like to eat but like to cook and even who write about cooking and food. I could of course go on.
I think that one thing teachers can do is to let students know that they have outside interests besides whatever it is that they teach. This goes beyond computer science of course. I think that students benefit from knowing that their teachers have lives outside of school and other interests.
