I often tell people I grew up on the dumb side of the island – I don’t mean that I, or my fellow travelers were dumb, but we certainly felt it. From first grade being stuck at the table with the old stubby crayons, to a former boss shouting “I BEFOE E” after seeing something I’d written, the message was clear: we were different, and not in a good way. These experiences shaped my world, making me feel like an outsider in a system that wasn’t built for minds like mine.
NPR’s recent post on dyslexia struck a chord with me, highlighting a reality I’ve lived with my entire life. As someone who attended nine different schools growing up, I experienced firsthand the lack of understanding and support for dyslexic students. Special education services, let alone specific interventions for dyslexia, were virtually non-existent in the 1970s and 80s. This journey through an education system ill-equipped to handle learning differences like mine has given me a unique perspective on the challenges faced by dyslexic students today.
But I got lucky – in middle school I escaped to what I think of as the resort side of the island. Two things pushed me across the island. First, my school records got lost, and then we got an Apple II e. This meant I entered a new school without the tracking my academic record produces, and I had a tool to help with my school work. And the resort side was great! We had supplies, got to do projects and be creative. It was the first time I felt I belonged in school. I even made friends.
Now, looking back, I recognize the role privilege involved – I was lucky my records were lost, but without access to a computer my time on the resort side would have been brief.
The Apple II E became my gateway coding, a pursuit that would profoundly impact my life. QBasic, with its simple and easy-to-spell set of commands, became my playground. Here, I could create complex programs and solve intricate problems, all while navigating around the spelling challenges that had previously held me back.
In CS Education we are at a pivotal moment. As our community works to broaden participation in computer science we have an opportunity to disrupt some of the structural inequity built into public education. To stretch a metaphor, it is an opportunity to “lose” the record of how schools treat marginalized students and build inclusive computer science classrooms.
Super Computer Science 