Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site gloria.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!mhuxn!mhuxj!mhuxr!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!rochester!rocksvax!rocksanne!sunybcs!gloria!colonel 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