As I said in my note in reply to Alan, there are at least two 
possibilities to explain the large failure rate in CS:
- We're doing a really lousy job teaching and need to fix it
- Many people can't learn to program, but then the question is why?

The empirical studies on failure in CS are not based simply on asking 
"the abandoners."  There were two studies presented at last year's 
ACM SIGCSE that particularly stuck in my mind:
- One was a study of female students who graduated with CS degrees. 
They were asked what they were surprised about in CS.  A common theme 
was that the women were surprised to learn that CS had a creative 
component -- that wasn't their image of it a priori.  They didn't 
find that creative component, however, until well past CS1.
- Another study focused on the pedagogical factors related to failure 
in CS1.  They used a large survey with all students at midterm time, 
then correlated the responses with course completion.  The most 
highly correlated factor was a sense of being able to ask for help. 
Students who failed at CS1 reported not being comfortable asking for 
help.  This result dovetails with Amy Bruckman's results that 
students learned to program in MOOSE Crossing when there was a social 
support network.

Of course boredom isn't the only explanation.  But it is one worth 
exploring, as are the social supports.

Mark

>In reply to all these replies about boredom.
>
>The *hypothesis* that boredom causes certain demographic groups to 
>abandon CS disprortionately to their relative numbers in the 
>population must be scrutinied. Just accepting this as true based on 
>the testimony of the abandoners it not science as it introduces the 
>hypothesis that the groups who stick with CS have a higher mean 
>tolerence for boredom.
>
>As a harsh litmus test, a without anyone getting over excited, watch 
>the international athletic championships in Edmonton tonight and 
>explain the disproportionate participation of certain groups of 
>mankind in certain events and then try to explain this away. PS. 
>Does my my testimony, as a poor athlete, count if I say sprinting is 
>boring.
>
>How you you separate boring as a cause, and boring as a consequent 
>of poor abilility ?
>
>Saying we do not know why disproportionate representations occur is 
>ok. It is not inherently a Bad Thing either.
>
>Brent
>
>
>
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--------------------------
Mark Guzdial : Georgia Tech : College of Computing : Atlanta, GA 30332-0280
Associate Professor - Learning Sciences & Technologies.
Collaborative Software Lab - http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/csl/
(404) 894-5618 : Fax (404) 894-0673 : guzdial at cc.gatech.edu
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/people/Faculty/Mark.Guzdial.html