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From: smosha@most.magec.com (Steve O'Shaughnessy)
Subject: Re: Comparison of languages for CS1 and CS2
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Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 16:50:39 GMT
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In article <3tuo6b$lp9@news.aero.org>, doner@aerospace.aero.org 
says...
>
>In article <3tufen$ohn@natasha.rmii.com>, Mr.H <mike@if.com> 
wrote:
>>of C++, the syntax still screws me up periodically (not to 
mention
>>that C++ isn't even a standard yet... why spend your time 
teaching
>>a langauage that doesn't even properly exist yet?)
>
>And yet, as discussed in a recent issue of CACM, the CEEB 
(College
>Entrance Examination Board) is about to promulgate a requirement 
that
>all high school AP courses in computer science teach C++.
>
No offense intended toward teachers, but those that can, do.  
Those that can't, teach. :)  I find it very disturbing the state 
of education in America today.  From kindergarten on. 
 
 I have attended military technical schools, formal universities 
(Purdue), in house training, as well as the latest in 
correspondence courses (NTU, National Technological University). 
I attended Purdue full time to earn my Associate Degree in 
Engineering Technology. I then when to work in industry and 
attended classes at night to earn the BS.  It took 10 years.  I 
am going to attend Purdue again in the Fall to get a Software 
Engineering Certificate.  The short of this is that I have 
attended post high school education for many many years. 

Most of what I do day to day as an electrical engineer I have 
learned on the job.  The early education gave me back ground, but 
the job taught me what I need to know.  I attend classes now to 
show my employer that I am promotable.  Never mind that I am 
already doing the work.

Its like an earlier poster said, "you can't just try a new 
language every semester, What you teach now ripples through for 
years."  Our schools are way behind the current technology.  
Perhaps we should change the old saw to say:

Those that *do*, can.
Those that don't do, teach what they can.

In defense of the universities, if I where an administrater with 
little knowledge of the real world. And I had to select a 
language for CS1, I would look in the trade journals to see what 
industry wanted.  Go ahead, look.  Very few ads for Ada 
programmers.  Lots of demands for C/C++.  The real question is 
WHY? 

