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From: draves@harvard.ARPA (Richard Draves)
Newsgroups: net.college
Subject: re: programming and carpentry in high school
Message-ID: <246@harvard.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 4-Jan-85 15:17:57 EST
Article-I.D.: harvard.246
Posted: Fri Jan  4 15:17:57 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Jan-85 00:44:21 EST
References: <399@hou2b.UUCP>
Organization: Aiken Computation Laboratory, Harvard
Lines: 22

> 
> >...... In any case, I feel kids should be taught to
> >program whether or not they will use it, because it is good training
> >for their minds.
> 
> this is exactly the point of view that i am criticizing.  should
> chess be made part of the high school curriculum because it is
> good training for the minds?  i think that most people will say
> no.  it is rather self-centered to think that the type of training
> you have received has made your mind BETTER (techno-centric).  i'm
> no cognitive scientist, but i don't think that the human problem
> solving processes resembles the way we currently program (hence the
> term semantic gap).
> 

I believe writing good programs and writing good proofs involve much
the same skills.  I would favor the inclusion of programming because
it gives the student a more tangible result, a running program.  I
think a student is more likely to work on a game program than some
abstract algebra proof.

Rich