Thinking Beyond the Bubble: The need for a real Sputnik moment for CS

Interesting reaction (in the NYTimes) to the article about the rise in enrollment (from the NYTimes).  Good to have these kinds of debates, and this piece echoes the concerns about cyclical enrollments that are appearing on the SIGCSE mailing list.

We’re in the middle of a new bubble now, with a fresh set of millionaires. There is little doubt that this will burst and enrollments will drop again. And we’ll have another generation of students who joined computer science for the wrong reasons.

If we want a real Sputnik moment, we need to create the same demand — and excitement — we had for engineers and scientists in the ’60s, when it seemed that the nation’s survival was at stake. Parents encouraged their children to become scientists; the president told us it was a national priority; and we made huge investments. Science was sexy, chic and essential.

via Thinking Beyond the Bubble – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com.