Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83 based; site hou2b.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!houxm!hou2b!dwc From: dwc@hou2b.UUCP (D.CHEN) Newsgroups: net.college Subject: re: programming and carpentry in high school Message-ID: <399@hou2b.UUCP> Date: Thu, 3-Jan-85 14:01:45 EST Article-I.D.: hou2b.399 Posted: Thu Jan 3 14:01:45 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 4-Jan-85 00:53:52 EST Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 55 >...... 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). in fact, the availability of computers can also be a crutch for the mind (both young and old). in one of my classes, we were given an assignment that required integration to find moments of inertia of cylinders. one student asked if he could solve the problem numerically on a computer. this is a graduate student in computer science who obviously must have had training in calculus. but the first thing he thought of was to call upon his programming training rather than his mathematical training. the sad fact is that we will all be guilty of this at some point. how many of us do an analysis of the complexity of the algorithms that we base our programs on before we write the programs? how many of us are depending on technology rather than our minds to solve problems quickly? how many of us are debating whether to force this crutch onto high school students? i'm overstating my case but i think that if problem solving and making abstractions are the skills you want to teach then put more emphasis on mathematics. >... Daily life requires only the most rudimentary literacy; >look at how many illiterate people survive undetected. do you mean to say that if they were detected they wouldn't survive? it sounds like open season on illiterate people! kidding aside, literacy is not some great goal for the development of the human soul or mind. it is really a safeguard for society since that is how our cumulative knowledge survives. for an individual however, if a person has the "rudimentary literacy needed to survive" why judge them any further? to re-emphasize the point of my original article, high school in this country is meant to provide the minimal education for participation in our great society. in practice, many high schools are certification factories for people who want to get jobs that require high school diplomas. that is why there are those who are marginally literate and who do not know simple arithmetic. in this environment, i think that a requirement for computer literacy will only take away from the drive for english literacy and arithmetic skills. and though i think that many more people will be USING computers in the future, not every person will have to program them (e.g. difference between knowing how to drive a car and knowing how the electrical system in a car works). danny chen ihnp4!hou2b!dwc