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]
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