"In 1961, Alan Perlis made the argument that computer science should be considered part of a liberal education, and that everyone should learn to program."
What does 'learn to program' mean? Drawing a square with Logo, proficiently using WinAPI in C++, a little Perl or what? M. Mitchell Waldrop in his book The Dream Machine (Viking: 2001) says that he made the argument that programming was a fundamental intellectual skill, like mathematics. He argued that computers “will participate in almost every intellectual transaction that goes on in the university.” They also participate in every commercial transaction in every supermarket. Should check-out staff learn to program? Calculus is generally considered part of a liberal education—truly educated people know something significant about calculus. Calculus is the study of rates, and rates are important to many fields. Perlis argued that computer science is about process: Its specification, its execution, its composition, and its limitations. And process is important to everybody. " Fishing is also about process - should we teach fishing? (well yes actually, since awareness of ecology is vital for our survival..) Yes, everyone should learn calculus, and vector algebra, computer science - its all great. But the concern is with the achievement of basic skills like what multiplying integers means. The proposal that programming might support the development of the concept of number is very helpful, and we should discuss that. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Kelly Fitz Sent: 08 October 2004 21:51 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: PPIG discuss: Children learning to program On Oct 8, 2004, at 12:10 PM, Jan Erik Moström wrote: > Learning to program just for the purpose of learning to program I'm > more > doubtful and I think the time can be spent better. > Here is a dissenting opinion, which I am quoting from the first paragraph of a ACM SIGCSE editorial, citation follows. It argues for learning computer _science_, not specifically computer _programming_, but the description in the last sentence of what CS is about sounds to me like what I think I teach in my programming classes. "In 1961, Alan Perlis made the argument that computer science should be considered part of a liberal education, and that everyone should learn to program. M. Mitchell Waldrop in his book The Dream Machine (Viking: 2001) says that he made the argument that programming was a fundamental intellectual skill, like mathematics. He argued that computers “will participate in almost every intellectual transaction that goes on in the university.” Calculus is generally considered part of a liberal education—truly educated people know something significant about calculus. Calculus is the study of rates, and rates are important to many fields. Perlis argued that computer science is about process: Its specification, its execution, its composition, and its limitations. And process is important to everybody. " @article{782943, author = {Mark Guzdial and Elliot Soloway}, title = {Computer science is more important than calculus: the challenge of living up to our potential}, journal = {SIGCSE Bull.}, volume = {35}, number = {2}, year = {2003}, issn = {0097-8418}, pages = {5--8}, doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/782941.782943}, publisher = {ACM Press}, } Kelly Fitz School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Washington State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
