I never did post a follow-on to report on the visit to Falmouth High School this past Thursday.
My colleague from WHOI and I had 7 more or less disinterested souls for our presentation, plus a bewildered English teacher who’d been recruited as our “guide”.
Having met some pretty high-powered young folk from the regional Vo Tech schools, I’d prepared a fairly high-level speech that would probably have worked at the college freshman level, including a demo and brief code review of a web service built from a Microsoft Press text example.
Big mistake.
Only one of the HS juniors “fessed up” to having any sort of computer training: he’s interested in graphics, and I tried to encourage him several times, saying (and I believe this) that this is a great specialty area.
The great majority of the students said they wanted to go to college – but none of them could tell us what schools they are considering. This strikes me as a very late-in-the-game lack of interest.
My colleague suggested they consider 4 C’s. Me, inspired by the example of Jaime Escalante, the “Stand And Deliver” teacher who started a fabulously successful AP Math program in an inner city high school, asked them about MIT.
And why not? Why should Falmouth students, who live in the same town as WHOI, MBL and WBNERR, watch the top jobs and the research fellowships go to other people from other areas?
I presented salary data to show they CAN make a living on the Cape as IT professionals, and I believe that – if they are prepared to make the smart networking and self-promotion choices to compete. But their energy was so low – explainable perhaps by the fact that the room was about 80 degrees and it was 9:00 in the morning – that I wondered if they were prepared to think about this at all.
They did like the hats, t-shirts and other “swag”, which will maybe serve as a friendly gesture of encouragement and support.
I got a very gracious letter from the Director of the Falmouth Volunteers in Public Schools, thanking me for my time, and reporting that the student evaluations of the workshop were “very positive”.
The letter continued, “Whether the students choose to go ahead into this particular career or, if they are now pointed in a different direction…” I agree with the Director, it’s valuable to know what you are getting into, without the usual military recruiter-like sugar-coating.
And the school itself did treat us with perfect respect, allowing us to freely roam the corridors, providing A/V support, and supplying a nice continental breakfast buffet.
And if I ever win that multi-million dollar jackpot, I can think of some very good uses, the kind that don’t get you into a constant stream of trouble with the local constabulary, like that cowboy-hatted jerk who won the big PowerBall this year.