Beware Geeks Bearing GIFs

I've said this for a long time, and it's good to see academia coming around. What's needed now is the "Renaissance Geek", according to the NYT. More and more universities are offering multi-disciplinary programs where the kids can learn psychiatry and computers, for instance, instead of computers alone. Still, officials worry that there is so much technology to learn that spreading things too thin might not be a good idea either.
So let me go out on a limb here: I think that modeling, programming, and user interfaces should be a critical part of High School curriculums. After all, expressing your thoughts as a simple computer program is certainly the 21st century equivalent of creative writing (not that it would replace it). A modicum of "what's a web page look like", and "how do I show these complex thoughts in a simple picture" are vital to the success and well-being of all students, not just CS majors.
It should be impossible to get any kind of degree from an University unless you have been taught something about interviewing, negotiation, and conflict resolution -- key skills to work through problems no matter what your field of study. Combining these modest people skills with equally modest computer skills would give our kids, and our country, the best shot at staying competitive in the future. No matter what you learn in school, keep learning or lose your job My opinion -- take it for what it's worth.