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From: jpj@mss.UUCP (J. P. Jenal)
Newsgroups: net.college,net.cse
Subject: Should Computer Science be taught at the High School level?
Message-ID: <241@mss.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Dec-84 01:48:01 EST
Article-I.D.: mss.241
Posted: Fri Dec 14 01:48:01 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 17-Dec-84 02:35:44 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Mayfield Senior School, Pasadena, Ca
Lines: 21
Xref: watmath net.college:519 net.cse:257

Greetings - Mayfield has been teaching Computer Science as an elective for
three years with Advanced Placement Computer Science being offered for the
first time this year.  The present Introduction to Computer Science course
is a fairly broad based introduction to the *science* of Computer Science
and has a significant emphasis on structured programming using Pascal.  
We are now considering making a Computer course of some sort a *required*,
1 semester class.

My question to the net readership is what should the content of a required
course be?  If you are a college educator, what information do you want
incoming Freshmen to possess regarding computers?  Not just students in CS
but *all* of your incoming students.  Do potential English majors really
gain something by learning how to code Pascal?  Or would they be better
served learning word-processing and spread sheets?

Thanks for your thoughts - I look forward to some stimulating discussions.

Cheers...

	Jim Jenal		(aka ...!scgvaxd!mss!jpj)
	Mayfield Senior School	( "  ...!ihnp4!mss!jpj)