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This is true in my experience. Even a (materials science) PhD student I'm working with told me he is so "bad with computers" that when someone asked him to open

This is true in my experience. Even a (materials science) PhD student I'm working with told me he is so "bad with computers" that when someone asked him to open a specific directory, he answered "what is a directory?". I can only imagine it being much worse for the general population, and this makes me wish I could teach in high schools, even if just a bit. Unfortunately, part-time teachers, or teachers that just come for the odd conference/course on a specific topic seem to mostly be a uni thing, at least where I live. I was just thinking about this the other day: kids should probably get more exposure to cryptography, maybe even before high school, for the following reasons: - kids love secret messages - crypto math is quite basic algebra - even without the maths, asymmetric crypto and hashes are quite easy to grasp - maybe it will allow them to better understand security as adults I would love to see a future where public/private keys can be used as a general authentication mean, without it needing to be too dumbed down, as we can expect people to know the basics. It would also likely lower phishing issues. I agree that schools are to blame here, even when they try to broaden the scope of their teachings. But I would give teachers some slack, as they were likely not prepared at all on some topics. So, maybe the solution here is indeed to ask parents to come and teach students some bits of their speciality? It could be done in multiple domains, and I feel like this would be a lot better for kids to be able to relate and project the content their are taught onto a person's job.

gibsons77 8y ago
These guys are working on a solution to general authentication for the web https://universallogin.io/ https://universallogin.io/
MarcScott 8y ago
> and this makes me wish I could teach in high schools, even if just a bit Reach out to a local school and set up a https://www.codeclub.org.uk/ https://www.codeclub.org.uk/
Balgair 8y ago
> I was just thinking about this the other day: kids should probably get more exposure to cryptography, maybe even before high school > So, maybe the solution here is indeed to ask parents to come and teach students some bits of their speciality? My SO taught HS Math for 2 years in the US. One in a VERY low income school, one in a 100% college acceptance rate school. Via what we talked about over dinners at night, I learned that what kids need is food and guardians that aren't abusive/neglectful. Honestly, ~30% of her students, from either school, would not eat at all over the weekend. No, not that they would eat Cheetos or drink Coke. They plain-jane went hungry. Long weekends were not a source of excitement for them. Their folks either didn't have the money or just didn't care. The 100% college acceptance rate school fed the kids breakfast and lunch each day, for free. That was likely the largest single contributor to the success of the school (unproven, granted). So, if you are US based and want to help out with these issues, PLEASE DO! A lot of kids really do need very simple things like food or pencils. It's amazing how smart kids are if you just give them a sandwich and a pen to work with. They just amaze you. Boys and Girls clubs are a great starting place: https://www.bgca.org/ https://www.bgca.org/ Google your local after school organizations and volunteer Become engaged in your school boards and PTA. They need guidance and citizen participation.
- pseudonom- 8y ago
  > ~30% of her students, from either school, would not eat at all over the weekend. No, not that they would eat Cheetos or drink Coke. They plain-jane went hungry. Can you help me reconcile that with the data from the USDA as described here? https://blog.givewell.org/2009/11/26/hunger-here-vs-hunger-there/ https://blog.givewell.org/2009/11/26/hunger-here-vs-hunger-t... They describe children in 0.3% of households as skipping a meal almost every month and the number of children that did not eat for at least one day in almost every month is too low to measure.
  - Balgair 8y ago
    Don't know what to tell you. I guess my SO was just that 'lucky'.

gibsons77 8y ago

These guys are working on a solution to general authentication for the web https://universallogin.io/ https://universallogin.io/

MarcScott 8y ago

> and this makes me wish I could teach in high schools, even if just a bit Reach out to a local school and set up a https://www.codeclub.org.uk/ https://www.codeclub.org.uk/

Balgair 8y ago

> I was just thinking about this the other day: kids should probably get more exposure to cryptography, maybe even before high school > So, maybe the solution here is indeed to ask parents to come and teach students some bits of their speciality? My SO taught HS Math for 2 years in the US. One in a VERY low income school, one in a 100% college acceptance rate school. Via what we talked about over dinners at night, I learned that what kids need is food and guardians that aren't abusive/neglectful. Honestly, ~30% of her students, from either school, would not eat at all over the weekend. No, not that they would eat Cheetos or drink Coke. They plain-jane went hungry. Long weekends were not a source of excitement for them. Their folks either didn't have the money or just didn't care. The 100% college acceptance rate school fed the kids breakfast and lunch each day, for free. That was likely the largest single contributor to the success of the school (unproven, granted). So, if you are US based and want to help out with these issues, PLEASE DO! A lot of kids really do need very simple things like food or pencils. It's amazing how smart kids are if you just give them a sandwich and a pen to work with. They just amaze you. Boys and Girls clubs are a great starting place: https://www.bgca.org/ https://www.bgca.org/ Google your local after school organizations and volunteer Become engaged in your school boards and PTA. They need guidance and citizen participation.

pseudonom- 8y ago
> ~30% of her students, from either school, would not eat at all over the weekend. No, not that they would eat Cheetos or drink Coke. They plain-jane went hungry. Can you help me reconcile that with the data from the USDA as described here? https://blog.givewell.org/2009/11/26/hunger-here-vs-hunger-there/ https://blog.givewell.org/2009/11/26/hunger-here-vs-hunger-t... They describe children in 0.3% of households as skipping a meal almost every month and the number of children that did not eat for at least one day in almost every month is too low to measure.
- Balgair 8y ago
  Don't know what to tell you. I guess my SO was just that 'lucky'.