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From: colonel@gloria.UUCP (George Sicherman)
Newsgroups: net.college
Subject: Re: Computer Science in high school
Message-ID: <753@gloria.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Dec-84 13:42:10 EST
Article-I.D.: gloria.753
Posted: Fri Dec 28 13:42:10 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Dec-84 03:00:58 EST
References: <241@mss.UUCP> <14700006@uiucdcsb.UUCP>
Organization: SUNY-Buffalo Confuser Science
Lines: 25

> I once had a store clerk who was going to ADD the dimensions of a
> mirror to compute the square footage.  Is this guy going to be help by
> a computer?  Only if it makes him realise the beauty and import of math,
> science, literature, philosophy, history and the like.  These are the
> essentials of life, without which no man can claim to be wise.
> Computers are tools to aid in the solution of problems, tools which
> can, it is true, unlock the mind.  But a mind which can not concieve of
> problems, can not formulate problems, can not research a problem to
> determine if it has been solved, can not debate about problems --- that
> is not a mind which needs a computer.

This is a shallow view of education.  Do computer programmers care about
the "beauty and import[ance] of math, science, literature ..."?  Not more
than other people.  Computer programming is a _basic_ skill -- it does
not require a knowledge of calculus, or number bases, or even the multi-
plication table.  It has nothing to do with literature and philosophy,
except for making their existing forms obsolete.

And it's condescending to speak of a tool as "unlocking the mind."
Every tool _alters_ the mind.  Machines made men slow, specialized, and
repetitive; computers are making men quick, versatile, and intuitive.
In a word, computers are programming people.
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
...seismo!rochester!rocksanne!rocksvax!sunybcs!gloria!colonel