Re: teachers=magicians ?

["Robert W. Harris" <rwharris@CATH-MEM.ORG>]

Ludwik Kowalski asked

> Introductory computer science courses (for general student
> population) used to teach programming, today they teach how
> to use existing packages. Who made this change and why?

I taught programming at the high school level during the 70's and 80's.  At
that time it seemed that you NEEDED to write a program to get anything done.
Now that immensely complex programs are available, it doesn't seem efficient
to keep reinventing the wheel.  It would take one person FOREVER to come up
with what you can buy for a few bucks.    (However, I still occasionally
have to write a little routine to accomplish some arcaine task.)

> Programming is an excellent way to promote thinking and to
> develop good working habits. Knowing where to click does
> not contribute much to intellectual development.


I completely agree.  They used to say that they taught Latin (and trig?) in
order to promote logical thinking.  It seemed to me that Fortran, or Basic,
or Pascal, or whatever would have taught the logic as well as having some
perhaps more practical value than Latin, at least for anyone going into the
sciences.

Now before the flames start, let me say that I took 4 years of Latin in high
school and 2 in college.  However, school time being limited, if you're
trying to teach logic, then programming is a good vehicle.

Br. Robert W. Harris
Catholic Memorial High School
rwharris@cath-mem.org
brotherphysics@hotmail.com
http://www.cath-mem.org/physics/contents.htm