Barack Obama, Ashton Kutcher, And Shakira Want Every Teacher To Spend One Hour Teaching Code This Week

Backed by the likes of President Barack Obama and Ashton Kutcher, non-profit Code.org is challenging teachers all over the U.S. to dedicate one hour of class time to educate their students about programming this week.

Brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi launched Code.org earlier this year to help make computer science accessible to the masses and this celebration of Computer Science Education Week (December 9-15) is its biggest, most star-studded, initiative yet.

President Barack Obama and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor both issued video statements today in support, and celebrities like Shakira, Ashton Kutcher, Macklemore, and Angela Bassett make appearances in Code.org's challenge video, urging parents, teachers, and students to focus on coding, computer science, and robotics this week.

Apple and Microsoft will both be hosting Hour Of Code workshops at all of their retail outlets. The Code.org site provides tutorials in JavaScript, LightBot, Python, and more.

90% of schools in the U.S. either don't teach computer science classes or only offer them as a non-credit electives, and through this challenge Code.org wants to raise awareness and excitement for changing the status quo.

"Don't just download the latest app," Obama says in his video. "Help design it."

Check out the Hour Of Code promo vid: