Re: [OT] Software Engineering at 14 (was: Re: Beginner's Language?)

[David Rush <kumo@bellsouth.net>]

peter.schuller@infidyne.com (Peter Schuller) writes:
> >Do you believe you learn only *facts* (or whatever it is that you can
> >remember or forget) in history classes? That might be all they teach,
> >but that's not all you were supposed to learn, IMHO.
> 
> Supposed to yes, but in reality, no. I assume you're referring to things
> like being able to conduct research, or analytical thinking as applied to
> history etc. Sure, it sounds good on paper, but in practice? It's about
> remembering facts for some exam. Except of course if you're *interested* and
> take initiative; which isn't the case in the situation in question.

C.S. Lewis (who was an educator before he was an author) talked about
this problem over 40 years ago. He pointed out that you can really
only measure such tangibles as the student's retention of "facts". If
you do anything else you will end up seriously distorting the
student's ability to think for themselves. Whether a student learns to
think (or in our biz design and program creatively and efficiently) is
a hopeful by-product resulting as much from the student's own internal
imperatives as it is from the teacher's performance.

Just my $0.02

david rush
-- 
If you give someone Fortran, he has Fortran.
If you give someone Lisp, he has any language he pleases.
	-- Guy L. Steele Jr.