Guest column: A motherboard of an opportunity

Cloquet Senior High rocked. Sure, that hockey championship remained elusive (I see you, Edina), and we weren't getting Lakeside views (I see you, East), but - as far as I'm concerned - we had the best teaching staff in the biz.

We had an English department that taught its students to write and think concisely (I'm sorry if that's no longer apparent in my writing); a science, math, and social studies program that taught us how to critically reason; a well-rounded phy ed, art, music, and home ec program, along with that language requirement that I use weekly living in Boston.

That said, after I received my diploma and went to college, I noticed something. One of the biggest factors that set peers apart in both their employability and coursework was not whether they had organic chemistry or Latin in high school (I know). It was whether they had an understanding of how computers work and whether they could use them to produce desirable outcomes. And, for the most part, that had nothing to do with how smart they were - but whether they had come from a high school that taught computer science.

Like everyone else at CHS, I had not.

Growing up, I had about the same interest in computers as I do in that skim of fat that forms on whole milk if you leave it out. (I wasn't into them.) I was more into using them as needed - to write an essay, for example - and then getting off of them to go outside. Hacker culture made me think of dark basements, Mountain Dew, and Cheetos ... yikes.

Fast-forward a few years and I now run a software company valued at a couple million dollars. I still hate basements, Mountain Dew, and Cheetos, and I still tell people to go outside. What happened?

What happened is that I studied sociology and painfully taught myself the basic fundamentals of programming and computers through a hodgepodge of projects. I met an inclusive group of people who were willing to work with me and teach me some tricks for things I didn't know. And I took an odd assortment of programming classes to try to fill in the gaps. And honestly, only after working over a year full-time at my own company do I feel like I have a pretty good handle on it.

It worked, but it sucked.

One of the things I wish I had known sooner is that computers are another way - like good writing - to make you more effective. And I wish that I had had exposure to computer science before I came to college.

Here's why:

The fundamentals of computer science (CS) are really hard to teach yourself. High school would've been an awesome time to get a background that I could build upon in college. The last place you want to learn something truly new is when you're juggling all these other intensive assignments while most other students who self-select into these curriculums seem to already know what they need to. This places students without high school computer programming exposure at a disadvantage. It's like being dropped into a three-month crash course on reading without knowing English or like trying to figure out how to do karate from videos. Getting the basics down in a safe and supportive environment disproportionately enhances future growth. Making CS a mandatory class also allows people to not count themselves out, like some would also do for phy ed, but gives everyone a square shot at checking it out. Also, having any form of CS education is not going to be less important in the future. Like reading, it's not going away (sigh, I was really hoping for that graphic novel era), nor the opportunities for people who know something about it.

Software is a critical part of our lives. I already hear that analogy coming: "Well, so is electricity, but does everyone need to become an electrician?" Absolutely not and thank God because my lights would always be out. That said, even though you're not wiring your own house, you should at least know about circuits, understand that electricity's not magic, and maybe be aware of why renewable energy is important. A basic CS course would provide an analogous set of knowledge. Now, let's say you did want to become a programmer. For starters, if you have an idea of how computers work and have them work for you, you can add at least 30k to your salary. Also, at least at the college recruiting level, basic knowledge of programming is becoming mandatory for all jobs, even for the ones that don't directly relate to it. But let's say you do go all in. If you're an intro programmer going to Facebook, for example, you're getting a 60k signing bonus and making a sweet 120k with a 40-hour workweek, health insurance, etc. out of college. If I were a parent, I would at least want my child to have some exposure and access to those opportunities, just like I'd like them to have some bio, chem, literature, etc.

Remember that phrase "knowledge is power"? I think people spend too much time on their phones. Understanding how CS works allows you to do more than just consume stuff on the web - it allows you to produce it. That's powerful, because it means that you're not just on the sidelines: you're in the game. The feeling of being able to make your own thing and launch it alongside the Facebooks and Googles of the world, that's powerful, American, and also Minnesotan and Cloquet-ian. The future involves software more and more, whether you want to be a dentist, work as a cashier, or just know why it doesn't make sense to keep tapping your phone when it's slow. Understanding CS is a way people can build the tools to fight back and build ways to get offline, as well. Just because people know how to watch someone do 100 pushups doesn't mean they can do it themselves. Being able to put your own stuff out there allows you to be an active citizen in the global internet. You can partake instead of just watch.

All right, so CS and its effects are changing the world; it's a really lucrative career, a deciding factor for recruiters, an increasingly important part of our lives; and CMS considered adding it to the curriculum but received a losing vote to do so last week. (Editor's note: See "Middle School to continue life skills classes" on Page 3 of last week's Pine Knot News.)

Nothing in life is free.

What would have been lost in the mix was one of the two quarters of home ec, reducing exposure to a quarter instead of two, and that's a shame. When I was in school, I loved that class, in large part because it was taught by an enormously compassionate, caring and dedicated educator. But I haven't used a sewing machine since, and I still burn my eggs. There may be no hope for students like me when it comes to making that cheesecake or folding that tablecloth, but you know what? I'm glad I was exposed to it. And that's my point. I know I also would have had that same appreciation for computer science had I taken it in secondary school.

Writer Luke Heine runs a software company from Boston, Mass. that he started while in college. He was one of 60 American award winners to represent the USA in a prestigious international fellowship in 2017. He has won Forbes 30 under 30 and studied sociology with a minor in CS at Harvard University. He proudly graduated from CHS in 2013 and still obnoxiously wears his shimmery purple cross-country short shorts on jogs.