<div dir="ltr">I'm not sure that the MAA is the right place either. The people you need to get to are the students, and to a lesser extent, their parents and/or teachers, and you are not going to get to them via other academics. Today it is technically feasible as it never was before. The problem that remains is social/political, I'm not sure how to solve it, but I do not think that academia is where it will get solved.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 10:33 AM, Shriram Krishnamurthi <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sk@cs.brown.edu">sk@cs.brown.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Your navy footnote is amusing...<br>
</blockquote><div><br>I cannot say that I thoroughly enjoyed the Navy schools, however, I learned more per unit time there than I did anywhere else in my life. </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>
You're right, the MAA is worth talking to. The ACM may be<br>
beyond hope. But we have to keep up at the ACM also,<br>
because ultimately outsiders (principals, parents, etc.)<br>
will look to the ACM when they need to make a decision.<br>
<br>
The problem w/ the demise of the courses is that it leaves<br>
schools free to label (as they have been doing already, even<br>
before the exam died) their computing literacy course (Excel,<br>
etc.) as "computer science". </blockquote><div><br>This is more depressing than I thought.<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
This in turn is going to have a<br>
serious effect on how students perceive the subject and<br>
whether they even try it in college. On the one hand, it's<br>
good: they'll come to college, see real CS, and say "Wow,<br>
this is totally different, and it's worth doing". But the loss is<br>
those who never try it out at all in college.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Shriram<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br></div>