Philanthropic Thoughts
This morning I have been reading about an organisation called “Code Club”. They back volunteer driven after-school clubs to teach children how to program computers. Given the recent efforts of Eben Upton and David Braben with the Raspberry Pi, I'm wondering if I should get involved “pay it forward”, so to speak.
I love spending time with children, and have always wondered if there might be an opportunity to help in education somehow. I've entertained daydreams of volunteering myself at the senior school to go in and talk to the older children about what I do (I'm a software and web developer)to let them know what it's really like.
Code Club is aimed at much younger children9 to 11 year olds. They provide all the course materialsall you really need is a venue, some old computers (they seem to advocate “Sugar on a Stick”a USB stick distribution of Linux), and a couple of people such as myself to help the kids dive in.
I find myself facing an all too common problem thoughtime. I'm not sure I would be able to reliably find time to do it. I typically don't get home until 6, and often work away. The last thing a group of enthusiastic kids need is a teacher who fails to turn up.
Maybe one day I'll change jobs to somewhere more static, and this will all become possible. Who knows.