Responding to a message by Steve, to Bob on ...
SM>It appears to me that the people who feel programming is 
SM>not that important are people who don't know how to 
SM>program. Could it be a case of "you don't know what you 
SM>don't know?"
I am the individual who is arguing against including programming 
instruction in middle school computer literacy courses, so your comments 
are best addressed to me.
To summarize, I program a little - I used to do quite a bit of Color 
Computer BASIC programming in the early 80's, later taught myself some 
LOGO and taught that to 5th and 6th graders.
I am not against offering electives in computer programming - I am 
opposed to forcing it on all kids, many of them barely knowledgeable 
about what a computer is.  In my experience, teaching computer literacy 
to middle school kids since 1983-84, off-and-on, I found many children 
were intimidated by it and it scared them away from the computers a bit.
This is MY opinion only, and there are several participating in this 
echo who disagree with me.  That's fine - perhaps they are either 
dealing with a different type of student or perhaps they have found a 
better way to make it relevant for the students than we were able to 
find in our district.
Chuck Beams
Fidonet - 1:2608/70
cbeams@future.dreamscape.com
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* UniQWK #5290* Other opinions will be welcomed and ignored.
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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