On Wed, Aug 08, 2001 at 12:33:26PM -0400, Mark Guzdial wrote:
> 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?

While I have followed this thread with interest someone has yet to state the
obvious reason why there is such a high failure rate in initial phases of CS.

>From my personal experience as both a student and a tutor I have found that a
large percentage of that students are not interested enough in the subject to
learn to apply themselves successfully.

Generally speaking:
The teachers in early education K-9 tend to teach the subjects at the
lowest possible level to obtain the pass rates required to keep themselves 
employed. The teachers of subjects in years 10-12 start to encourage 
the students to start learning for themselves. BUT they still TEACH.

These students then take this attitude into tertiary education and still expect
to be taught as they have been for most of their lives.

If the educators of our children encouraged and nutured our children's
incentive to explore and learn during their early school years rather than 
discouraging them, I feel there would be a higher success rate in their
tertiary education where they have to think and learn for themselves.

NB the above is only a general comment on the education system and does not 
apply to all teachers, schools or students.

John Briggs
-- 
Feeling exploited, impoverished or imprisoned??
Knock down the Gates of .... and break free into the "Brave GNU World" of the
"Free Software Foundation".
"Squeak" with delight at the pleasure this freedom brings.