When Barack Obama Does Code … In School

Wearing a cap with the word “code,” Barack Obama was joined by New Jersey students for an hour-long session of coding: “Hour of Code.” This program was launched about a year ago so that 50 million students could try coding for an hour.

The First American President Ever to Code

Helped by a Newark student more experienced in computer science than him, Barack Obama wrote a line of code in Javascript. Thus, he became the first U.S. president to have written a computer science program. Barack Obama drew a square in Javascript, with the help of Google software. However, he mostly watched the student write the code than he programmed himself.

“All programming starts simple. No one starts by creating a complicated game,” emphasized Hadi Partovi — the cofounder of Code.org — who promotes the teaching of computer science and technology professions in the United States.

Computer science, an Issue in the United States

In 2013, it’s Barack Obama himself who initiated the first week of computer science in school, declaring that every citizen should, from now on, know how to code, and specifying that this skill was important for the future of the country. The president of the United States addressed a solemn video message to students, so that they participate in this “Hour of Code.” Programming is perceived as a national issue in America.

As for France, at the moment, we remain at the optional initiation stage in primary school. Benoît Hamon, the Minister of National Education, announced last July that he’d like the introduction of the teaching of computer science code in primary schools as extracurricular crafts. The minister called for projects of initiation programs in computer language in schools.

During a televised intervention on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, Francois Hollande announced that within the plan, “all 5th grade students will be equipped with a tablet,” from the beginning of the 2016 school year, and will benefit from “training with computer code.” Meanwhile, contrary to the United States president, he will not venture into coding.