Blog Tour Warning: Contains Computer Science and Copious Gene Luen Yang

Folks, if you’re anything like me then you probably live in a lovely little mental bubble, unaware that this week is Computer Science Education Week.  Why should you care?  Well, I’m part of a little Gene Luen Yang blog tour right now, and the folks at First Second just put out these fast facts.

The majority of schools don’t teach computer science – 90% of parents want their kids to study computer science, but only 40% of schools teach it.

15% of households in the US don’t have a computer. So if the kids in those households overlap with the 60% of schools around the country that don’t teach computer science, they won’t have any access to computers or learn about them in school.

There are fewer students in the US graduating with a degree in computer science than there were ten years ago – and half as many women.

Computer science majors can earn 40% more than the average college graduate.

Computing jobs are the #1 source of new wages in the US; there are more than 500,000 open jobs in computers right now (in every state around the country), and these jobs are projected to grow at twice the rate of all other jobs.

Computer science only counts towards graduating in 32 states.

To celebrate the week properly I’m showing off a quote from our distinguished National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature, Gene Luen Yang.

Want more?  Check out all the other folks on the tour this week.  They are:

• Kid Lit Frenzy, 12/5
• Sharp Read, 12/6
• Fuse #8, 12/7
• SLJ Good Comics For Kids, 12/8
• Watch Connect Read, 12/9
• SLJ 100 Scope Notes, 12/10

Many thanks to Gina Gagliano for making this happen.

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