点击订阅推动财富向善

来源 | Fast Company

编者按

非营利计算机编程教育网站Code.org的创始人哈迪·帕尔托维(Hadi Partovi)出生于两伊战争时期的德黑兰，伊朗的学校不提供计算机课程，哈迪在家里自学了编程。全家人后来作为伊朗难民来到美国，哈迪通过暑假做软件工程师来支付高中和大学的学费，得以在哈佛大学完成了计算机科学硕士学位。之后他进入微软，成为高管；他曾创办了两家科技企业，被微软和新闻集团收购。2013年，哈迪和他的双胞胎兄弟阿里创办了非营利的免费编程网站Code.org，立志在21世纪为全世界基础教育体系填补计算机科学的空白，让任何地区的孩子都可以接受高质量的计算机教育，而不仅仅是有钱付费的少数幸运孩子。网站得到了亚马逊、脸书、谷歌、印孚瑟斯基金会、微软等机构工程师的技术支持和资金支持。今天40%的美国学生拥有code.org的账号，用户中1500万的学生是女性，有100万教师使用该网站教学。全球有5亿学生参与了“编程一小时”活动。编者甚至了解到埃塞俄比亚的学校都在使用该网站进行计算机教学。

如果一些人的“小目标”还停留在“先挣一个亿”，此文试图告诉我们，人生可以有更大的目标，可以梦想为数亿的人们创造更大的改变，为一个公平世界的未来点燃希望。

“如果计算机科学像生物学一样被编入校园课程，学校体系会是什么样?”这是哈迪·帕尔托维在创办非营利编程教育网站Code.org之前问自己的问题。

从社会问题中寻找变革的点子

因为学校过去都没有开设过计算机科学（CS）的课程（而仅有简单的计算机使用课程），于是哈迪敏锐地意识到教育体系如果想开设这类课程就需要编程教师和面向教师的培训项目。

要想使得这一课程起到更大的作用，他必须为K-12体系（学前班-12年级）的每个年级开发计算机课程，并举办专业实践培训班来培训教师。他们也必须发起筹款和倡导活动,以引起全社会和全球的足够重视，来让决策者将原本不存在的一个课程纳入21世纪的学校教育体系。

哈迪说，在Code.org上线的第一年，他印象最深刻的就是“缺觉”，资金也非常紧张—因为他和他的兄弟、联合创始人阿里是自掏腰包。在头七个月中，哈迪是这家企业的第一个也是唯一一个雇员。（下图左为哈迪，右图为阿里）

到运营满一年时，这个项目显著地填补了学校教育，同时也填补了时代发展的一个空白。学生们共计参加“编程一小时”(The Hour of Code)活动2000万次，这是一个一小时的计算机科学入门课程，为普通大众揭开编程的神秘面纱。哈迪说，全球有50万学生在课堂上使用Code.org的课程学习编程。他说，这个理念的传播和发展远比Facebook、Google或其他任何网站都要快。

今天，据该网站统计全世界有5亿学生参与了“编程一小时” 的活动。Code.org已经与美国180个最大的学区合作，将计算机科学添加到学校课程中。这些地区的学生占美国学生总数的10%，拉美裔和非洲裔学生的比例为15%。

在Code.org的平台上，全球已有超过80万名教师注册教授计算机科学入门课程。而且，从2017年开始，学生可以在美国大学入学考试中选择CS作为AP（美国大学预修课程）课程。

哈迪说，虽然在美国决定什么内容可以进入学校课程体系仍然是一个深刻的政治问题，但是“我们非常幸运，因为当今没有人会否认计算机科学的重要性。人们日常使用的所有产品都离不开计算机科学。”

Code.org的课程取代了过时的计算机技术课程，那些技术教育课程只是教授学生“如何浏览网页或创建文件，以及发布话题；而我们的课程不同，我们教他们如何编写程序或开发应用程序。”

多样化视角：覆盖少数族裔、女性、更多难以获得计算机教育的人群

哈迪的母亲曾是伊朗的一名计算机科学家，帕尔托维一家以伊朗难民的身份来到美国。哈迪于上世纪90年代初在哈佛大学学习计算机科学。

哈迪发现在计算机科学实验室工作的“大部分人员都是白人和亚洲男性，女性只有少数几个”。当他看到这样的情景，第一次深刻意识到这个领域缺乏多样性的问题。 

所以哈迪创办Code.org的目标之一就是让更多女性和少数族裔学习计算机科学。他说，这个非营利网站做的每一件事都采用了多元化的视角。

Code.org的员工保持种族、性别多样性

从制作的培训视频到教师培训，再到“编程一小时”的视频，在每个方面他都确保女性和少数族裔得到充分展示。比如，他们最近与可汗学院(Khan Academy)和阿拉斯加航空公司合作，发布了一系列名为《计算机是如何工作的》(How Computers Work)的视频，旨在教会任何人编程，讲课的人包括了苹果(Apple)设计师梅李寇（May-Li Khoe），亚马逊（Amazon）软件工程师艾瑞卡·戈麦斯，Loomia的创始人麦迪逊·马克西等讲述者，更有大名鼎鼎的比尔∙盖茨。

Code.org将多样性作为整个项目的一个关键指标来衡量。

根据Code.org2017年年度报告，全球有1000万女孩在Code.org的平台上拥有账号，其中一半的女孩在保持很高的热情学习编程，这些女孩大部分都在1-8年级。

在CS教室里，45%的学生是女性，48%的学生来自少数族裔，这个数量是计算机科学课程历史平均水平的两到三倍。

哈迪指出，“如果这些女孩中有1%的人在大学里继续学习计算机科学，就能够让性别差距在这个领域消失。”

从开发商业产品到创造社会变革的挑战

在微软和其他科技公司工作期间，哈迪学会了如何开发一个个令人瞩目的产品。通过他经验和知识去构建编程平台和编写CS课程是比较容易的。“困难的部分是领导这场变革来改变教育，并赋能教师，让他们能够改变传统的教学方式。”

哈迪面临的另一个挑战是，他必须决定该组织对于特朗普政府每年向美国学校额外提供2亿美元的CS课程资金预算提案如何表态。

“连月来，我一直在为促成这一提案努力。这是一个艰难的决定，一方面是因为我的移民背景（让我很难认同特朗普），另一方面是因为我们的使用者—老师们对新一届政府非常不满。如何向公众传达自己在政府倡导过程中的角色，在称赞白宫政策的同时保持中立的态度，这都是一个挑战。不仅在教育体系，还有组织内部，都有可能会因处理不好其中的平衡而导致巨大的危机。”

哈迪表示，他必须确保所有的合作伙伴都理解与政府合作的性质。与白宫的合作关系始于奥巴马总统而不是从本届政府。 “奥巴马总统在他的演讲中，在他的国情咨文中，以及他亲自参与‘编程一小时’，无不表现出他对计算机科学的支持和鼓励他的政府资助计算机科学。”

哈迪曾经向奥巴马总统请教对社会创变者的建议，他说道：“我给人们的最好建议是，要志存高远，而不是追求小的增长目标。当我们的梦想越大，就会有越多的人想要支持我们，这使得大的目标有时比小的目标更容易实现。”

现在，哈迪正在做的一件事是让拉丁美洲（总人口6.5亿，2018年）的每个国家都把计算机科学加入到学校课程中，让计算机的发展遍及美洲大陆的每个国家，“一方面，这计划看起来太庞大了，似乎难以实现；但另一方面，正因为这是一个宏大的想法，所以更容易赢得支持。”

相关文章

• 当教育成为慈善首要投入时，我们可以期待什么

• 执掌美国财富的家族下一代，他们在想什么、做什么

• 金融科技能为我们带来什么？

• 大数据与农民——科技慈善引领农业发展新时代
  

（点击文末“阅读原文”查看英文原文）

原题：Code.org Is Giving Kids A Chance To Code By Bringing Computer Science To Schools来源：Fast Company日期：2018年5月15日

"What would the school system look like if computer science had the same curriculum the way biology does?" That's the question Hadi Partovi asked himself before launching his education nonprofit, Code.org. Because CS had not been taught in schools before, he quickly realized they needed teachers–and a training program for the teachers. They would have to build CS courses for each level in the K-12 system, and host hands-on professional training workshops to train teachers. They would also need to mount a fundraising and advocacy effort so they could solve the problem of a nonexistent CS curriculum at a national and global scale by convincing school districts, administrators, and policymakers about the need for computer science education in our schools in the 21st century.

Partovi says what he remembers most of the first year of launching Code.org is "how little sleep I got." Funds were tight as Partovi and his co-founder, his brother, Ali, initially funded the venture with their own money; Partovi was the first and only employee for the first seven months.

By the end of their first year, it was clear that the program had filled a real gap in school curriculums, which had failed to keep up with the times. Students had participated in "The Hour of Code," a one-hour intro to computer science designed to demystify coding, 20 million times. And 500,000 students had learned to code using Code.org's courses in classrooms worldwide, Partovi points out. He says the concept took off, "faster than Facebook, Google, or anyone else."

Today, the organization says 500 million students worldwide have taken the Hour of Code. Code.org has partnered with 180 of the largest school districts in the U.S. to add CS to the curriculum. These districts teach almost 10% of all U.S. students, and 15% of Hispanic and African American students. More than 800,000 teachers worldwide have signed up to teach the introductory CS courses on Code.org's platform.  And, as of 2017, students can take a course in computer science at the AP level for college admissions in the U.S.

Despite the fact that deciding what fits into curricula in America remains a deeply political issue, Partovi says, "we got very lucky because nobody disagreed that computer science is needed. They see the value of computer science in all the products we use." Code.org's courses tend to replace the antiquated technical education courses, which teach students "how to browse the web or create documents, topics they already come to school knowing. What if we instead we teach them how to write a program or build an app?"

He credits the remarkable growth they've had to word of mouth endorsements from teachers telling other teachers about the program, which, in turn, enables Code.org to appeal to school administrators and policymakers by noting large numbers of teachers.

USING A DIVERSITY LENS

Partovi's mother had been a computer scientist in Iran. When the family came to the U.S. as a refugee from Iran, Partovi ended up studying computer science at Harvard in the early 1990s. Working in the computer science lab, which was the only way you had access to a computer, was a "sea of white and Asian men, with only one or two women." It was the first time he became acutely aware of the lack of diversity in the field.

So one of his goals in launching Code.org has been to get more women and minorities to study computer science. He says the nonprofit uses a diversity lens in everything they do–from the training videos they develop to the teacher training workshops, and the "Hour of Code" video–making sure women and minorities are well represented. For instance, they recently released a series of videos, "How Computers Work," distributed in partnership with the Khan Academy and Alaska Airlines, intended to teach anyone to code, featuring narrators like the Apple designer May-Li Khoe;  Erica Gomez, a software engineer at Amazon; Madison Maxey founder of Loomia, alongside Bill Gates. Developing the series was a two-year effort, "It was personally important to me to showcase diversity in the videos to show that computer science is for everyone." Partovi adds.

In thinking about their impact, Code.org measures diversity as a key metric across their programs. Globally, 10 million girls have accounts on their platform and half of those girls were actively coding in the school year, mostly in grades 1-8, according to Code.org's 2017 annual report. Forty-five percent of the students in their CS classrooms are female and 48% minorities from underrepresented minorities, which is roughly double and triple of the historical averages for computer science courses. Partovi points out that, "if only 1% of these girls continue to study CS in university, that would outnumber the gender gap that exists today."

FROM PRODUCT MANAGER TO LEADING A MOVEMENT

From working at Microsoft and other tech ventures, Partovi knew how to build great products, so building the coding platform and the CS curriculum was the easy part. He concedes that "the difficult part has been leading this movement to disrupt education–and empowering teachers so they can disrupt what we teach in classrooms." Partovi sees the disruption as a rethinking of what we teach while most debates are focused on how we teach (arguments about more testing, longer school days, smaller classrooms, etc). And he says when you are involved in such a systemic disruption, the challenge comes from working with multiple partners, from school districts to funders and policymakers, who can all have their own agendas, and you have to learn how to balance these interests with an eye to the overall goals of your organization.

One such challenge for Partovi came when he had to decide if the organization was going to support the Trump administration's $200 million per year expansion of computer science offerings in America's schools. "I had personally worked on this for months with the administration. It was a difficult decision, partly given my immigrant background, and partly because the teachers who are our audience are really quite critical of the new administration. How we messaged our role in the process, applauding an action taken by the White House, and keeping the discourse nonpartisan, all that was a challenge–not only in the education community but even among my own staff, because people who strongly opposed the administration were concerned that we would 'normalize' other actions of the administration."

Partovi says he's had to make sure all their partners understand that the partnership with the White House, which led to this commitment was four years in the making, long before the current administration. It began with President Obama, "to win his support for computer science in speeches, in his State of the Union address, in his personal participation in the Hour of Code, and to encourage his administration to fund computer science."

I ask him what advice he has for changemakers who are trying to lead similar movements. "The biggest advice I give people is to aim for the stars, not for small incremental goals. It's counterintuitive, but the bigger we dream, the more people want to support us, which makes bigger goals sometimes seem easier to hit than small ones. Right now, one thing I'm working on is I'm trying to see if I can get every country in Latin America to add computer science to the curriculum, continent-wide. On the one hand, it sounds impossible. On the other hand, because it's a big idea, it's easier to win support."

MORE INFORMATION

善财志（Family Legacy Review）由国际公益学院主办，是国内首个聚焦家族慈善和可持续商业的知识平台。通过分享国内外慈善家族的传承经验和经典案例，为中国家族治理、财富传承、慈善创新提供最新的知识与路径。

--end--

声明：本文章由网友投稿作为教育分享用途，如有侵权原作者可通过邮件及时和我们联系删除：freemanzk@qq.com