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From: scott@gitpyr.UUCP (Scott Holt)
Newsgroups: net.college,net.cse
Subject: Re: Should Computer Science be taught at the High School level?
Message-ID: <439@gitpyr.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 19-Dec-84 12:46:20 EST
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.439
Posted: Wed Dec 19 12:46:20 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Dec-84 02:13:07 EST
References: <241@mss.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Lines: 45
Xref: watmath net.college:556 net.cse:273

> 
> 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?

   Well, I am not college educator, but I do have some thoughts as to the  
teaching of 'computer science' before college.
   I do not feel that 'computer science' should be required at the high school,
or even college level. 'Computer literacy', however, should be required of all
students reguardless of profession...it is a skill that will be needed for    
survival in the near future ( if not now ). By 'computer literacy' I do not 
mean programming, but rather an introduction to the impact of computers on 
society and how computers can help in any profession. Just as chemistry is not
required for many professions, niether should programming. It should be offered
as an elective, just as many other sciences are, and It should be stressed that
for students planning on entering engineering or science, programming will
be a valuable skill.
   Personaly I feel that recent trend towards offering AP classes in computer
science is great...I think we should offer the students anything they can 
handle, and many of the can handle it. There are far to many people out there
however, who have absoultly no need for programming to require that it be
taught as a mantatory subject. The same resons why we dont require Calculus,
Physics, and many other subjects for every student should apply to computer
science...not that many people need to know how to program. Everybody, though,
needs to know the impact of the computer on their life.

                             - Scott Holt
                               ..gatech!gitpyr!scott


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Scott Holt
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Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332

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