Opinion on WhiteHatJr

Why this video of Mr.Karan Bajaj, CEO of WhiteHatJr triggers me:

1.     Their communication: The constant messaging that creativity reduces after a certain age is INCORRECT and more of a #FOMO message for parents. As a matter of fact, MIT suggests teaching MUSIC, NOT CODING for raising kids smarter. Kids are gullible, and so are many parents who do not have the privilege of having a software engineer as a close contact who can educate them further on any such ads like the ones by WhiteHatJr.

2.     Women empowerment card: Mr. Bajaj needs to stop using the #womenempowerment card. There is no “empowerment” whatsoever in a female-only hiring or female teachers who do not know their C++ from Java, lack fundamental programming knowledge, or have worked in obsolete technologies. If anything, it projects more negatively on the notion – “women can’t code”, which #womenintech deal on a regular basis anyway.

3.     Deleting feedback: A tech company deleting feedback from engineers is beyond me.

This post is also a request, specially to female connections who are doing real fabulous jobs in their respective technical domains. Many of us are vocal on the matter of women in tech. Look into this issue, judge it for yourself and please speak up.

And for media houses, who repeatedly ask the same questions, here is a fresh set of questions you can ask next time:

1.     How does peer-pressure impact children who cannot afford classes like WhiteHatJr?

2.     Would any certificate at 6 hold any professional value in future?

3.     What is the actual knowledge gap between the designed curriculum and what kids actually understand from such platforms?

4.     Can people have a demo on the platform for what is claimed as “Space Tech”?

5.     Can we actually see this issue of mushrooming platforms targeting kids, through the lenses of real software engineers, child psychologists, and policy makers?

Originally posted on LinkedIn.