
What's Programming? - bgray
http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/71416-school-pupils-attitudes-to-programming-whats-that/fulltext
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DanielStraight
I don't think this is significant. Try asking a 12-year old about mechanical
engineering or accounting or just about any other job that doesn't have a
strong public face and I imagine you'll get the same response.

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sophacles
I think it is significant for the exact same reason. Part of the article was
about how computing courses focus on software use.

Ask a 12yo about what is math? The answer will focus around doing problems,
not creating solutions that are logically sound, nor mention of solving
proofs. Ask that 12yo about about science and it is about science and it is
about boring fact memorization, not a process for discovering how the world
works.

There is something wrong somewhere, but I honestly am not sure what.

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DanielStraight
That is a good point. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that if this is
a problem, it's systemic. It's nothing specific to computers. That it applies
to computers is not significant, per se, because it applies to everything.

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sophacles
Ahh, that makes sense. I was misreading it as "this is the nature of a 12-year
old".

It seems the more I talk to people who study education and teaching methods,
the more I realize the whole thing is kinda screwed. Whenever you hear someone
talking about what the "real problem" is, they are at least partially right.
Most things people bring up as problems have data to back them up, even
seemingly contradictory methods have promising data for both sides. Such a
thing suggests we haven't a clue what is actually happening, and are still
fumbling for a baseline to ask questions about.

