[Edu-sig] re: A small essay in my own defense

[Arthur]

Kirby writes -

>Not sure I follow.

snip

>So from a "how things work" point of view (a "get to know your >world"point of view) it's necessary to have some idea of what >code does and how it comes into existence.

As sometimes happens, I can not follow why you are not following what I think is a clear argument.  

You can define "programming" anyway you want,I guess.  And you can certainly reasonably argue that something *about* programming sensibly belongs in a curriculum.  

Just be sensitive to the fact that others may be using that exact same word to mean something quite else: a rigorous approach to a rigorous discipline. Applied mathematics of an advanced nature. Naked, as such.

We both teach "programming". But they just make it seem so hard.  We give easy A's over here.

That's one way to fill up a class.

Art


Please understand I am not being critical of anything you are saying, other than to suggest - lets talk about apples when we are talking apples, and oranges when meaning oranges.

And bend, especially, over backward to do so, when it is to some tactical advantage to do otherwise.

I think the Open Source ethic holds us to high standards - or should -  in respect to these kinds of things.

Art