My American high school doubled down and upgraded to Turbo Pascal 5.5 in the 90's. These days about half of US high schools offer some kind of computer science or IT class. It might be JavaScript and HTML/CSS, or it might be Java, a handful of high schools are doing Python. (there isn't much standardization in education in the US)
The brain dead thing is legislatures try to push computer science as a mandatory course in our schools. We keep running into this in California. And Silicon Valley keeps telling them that it's not necessary. Kids who are interested will take the opportunity, and ones who are not will take something else that interests them.
I'd rather live in a world where there is a mix of people from different backgrounds. Maybe some took programming. Some took creative writing. Some took visual arts (mostly painting and sculpture). And so on. In the US you can find schools that offer electives in computer animation, fashion construction (sewing - but with a flair), drama, choir, botany, etc. I took electronics and Pascal, plus some after school sports like tennis.