On Oct 12, 2004, at 5:28 AM, Mark Guzdial wrote:
If we as CS educators declare that we're only interested in software developers, then I fear that (a) we're cutting computer science out of the majority of interesting programming going on and (b) we're doing the programmers-but-not-quite-developers a disservice by not helping them understand what they're doing and how to do it well.
Perhaps my own background skewed my perspective on Mark's summary of Perlis' argument. In my early undergraduate career, when I thought I was going to be a chemist, I learned in one of my chemistry classes an approach to problem solving that has stuck with me even though I haven't written a chemical formula in eighteen years. Its not the same approach to problem solving that I developed when I started programming, but it is a skill that I learned and transfered out of the domain in which I learned it into the rest of my life.
My interpretation of Perlis' argument is that in learning to program, we learn techniques for analyzing and understanding processes, for decomposing problems into manageable units and reusable structures, and recognizing the distinct participants in a solution. Aren't these transferable skills that are of value, even to those who don't ultimately become regular programmers?
Perhaps I was missing the point, but I didn't feel like Perlis was arguing that everyone should become a computer programmer, any more than everyone should use calculus on a daily basis.
Moreover, I am certain that I missed the mark by not recognizing that this thread began as a discussion of teaching _children_ to program. I have no reason to believe that children could not benefit from exposure to programming, but I am pretty certain that Perlis' argument concerned post-secondary students, not primary school students. So I apologize if I derailed the original discussion.
-kel
Kelly Fitz School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Washington State University [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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