Re: Looking for a good Ada 95 book

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <dewar.848785112@merv>, Robert Dewar <dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu> wrote:

>Best guess is that jim has not taught a CS1 course. I often find that
>computer professionals GREATLY overestimate what is appropriate to teach
>at this level. Teaching anything about programming and abstraction is
>very hard -- I agree with everything jim says, but it is NOT an appropriate
>excercise in a first semester course in programming, which is what we are
>talking about here!

In my experience, even _professors_ who do not teach first-term courses
underestimate the difficulty of doing so, and overestimate what can be
taught. First-year (and even first-term) courses are, these days, being
heaped with all kinds of stuff so that the students are "prepared" for
all successor courses.

In other words, the basic definition is now coming down to "teach
EVERYTHING in the first year, EXCEPT the special area I want to teach in
my own course."

As anyone hanging around the first-year teacher "network" knows, I am
only _slightly_ exaggerating.

Robert and I may have our differences about reserved word case and
"standard" vs. course-specific styles, but I think he and I are in
violent agreement about the politics and difficulties of intro
courses.

Luckily, Robert and I are both pretty senior faculty folks. We can
use both experience and seniority as ammunition to resist the pressure 
to load the freshmen up with everything except the kitchen sink.
I really feel sorry for the junior faculty people who - in many
institutions - get "stuck" with teaching the intro course and have
neither the expertise nor the seniority to resist.

I am NOT "stuck" with the intro coure, and (AFAIK) neither is Robert.
I teach this course at least once a year, with willingness and
(usually) enthusiasm. Ditto the second ("CS2") course.

We are doing this because we both think it's important to build the
right foundation under the students' education. We may have our
differences on some of the details, but (I think) we're quite in
sync on the underlying fundamentals.

Mike Feldman