Just about a week ago, some of my peers told me their computer science professor announced he was planning to increase the course’s difficulty in the coming quarter.
I was so confused. To provide some context: the aforementioned course is one of the toughest in Stanford’s computer science core — let’s call it CS B, for clarity. CS B seems to have recently undergone changes in structure and curriculum to the point where it is putting up a good fight against the class currently regarded as the hardest, which I’ll refer to as CS A. I’m currently enrolled in CS A and it is, without a doubt, the most challenging class I’ve ever taken. Next quarter, I’ll be taking CS B — which has a reputation for being tough, but less tough. However, things appear to be changing.
“CS B is actually much more difficult than CS A,” one of my peers warned me. “And our professor told us he’s trying to make it even harder.”
Even harder? What?!
So why exactly does this professor want to make such a difficult course even more difficult? I haven’t spoken with him, so I’m not entirely sure. I assume he’s interested in covering more material, which sort of makes sense. But I’m also inclined to think that “making it harder” has something to do with trying to weed people out.
Ever heard of a weeder course? If not, weeder courses are those designed to not only teach us a subject, but also “weed-out” those who aren’t cut out for the particular field or major. In growth-mindset terms, weeder courses are meant to retain the students who display the most interest and potential by means of their willingness to work the hardest.
Stanford is a top engineering school facing a surplus of interest in computer science, which is why I’m not surprised that they’re trying to weed people out — whether or not they’ll admit to it. But the problem with weeder courses is they actually tend to weed out the wrong people for the wrong reasons: women and minorities due to Stereotype Threat.
Consider the following scenario. A white man and a Hispanic woman take a challenging CS B exam. They both get C's.
The man sees his grade and thinks: CS B is a really difficult class. I’ll need to study harder if I want to do well on the final.
The woman sees her grade and thinks: I must not be cut out for computer science.
So why the difference in reactions? Is it because the woman is a slacker? Because she doesn’t want to study harder? Because she likes giving up? Nope — it’s most likely because she’s been affected by societal messages portraying computer science as a field solely for white and Asian men, making her underperformance feel like a confirmation of this stereotype. So she drops the class, drops the major, and the weeder course has effectively weeded someone out based on something entirely unrelated to her passion or potential.
This is not to say that computer science classes should be easy. It’s a difficult subject, and it’s important to prepare students for the rigor and complexity of the field. But we shouldn’t make courses harder for the heck of it, and we certainly shouldn’t make them harder in an effort to deter interest.
Moreover, if we’re looking to incorporate new material, as is often necessary in such a rapidly changing subject area, we have to do so thoughtfully. Simply cramming more in is ineffective and unreasonable. If students start to fail, get lost, or struggle to stay afloat, we will be altogether unsuccessful in teaching and equipping them to thrive as computer scientists.
It’s important to note that Stanford has been doing a great job reforming its computer science department to be more inclusive, welcoming, supportive, and diverse, but still has a long way to go. At the same time, it’s evident that the university wants to be much more than just a computer science school, and I agree that this is important. But there are many ways to go about this that do not include weeder courses.
If universities such as Stanford want to see a more diverse body of interests, they should focus on further facilitating interdisciplinary studies and helping students balance various pursuits. Stanford recently inaugurated its CS+X program in which students can joint-major in computer science and the humanities. This is a great start, but from what I’ve heard, it’s also somewhat flawed because it requires a colossal amount of units. Still, programs like these, which are mean to encourage students to do more than just CS (as so many do) are one of the very best ways to help keep Stanford well-rounded.
