[plt-scheme] Re: HTDP - evidently not for everyone.

On Feb 10, 8:39 pm, Marco Morazan <moraz... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 1:05 PM, wooks <woo... at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > My 100 hours has been with the "great unwashed". People who have not
> > been filtered through any academic (be it university or high school)
> > admissions system.
> ...
> > I don't want to go further into chapter and verse, but if you want to
> > measure your beliefs about human aptitude for a universal education in
> > programming, then my clientele probably provide a less biased sample
> > than what you are accustomed to.
>
> Been there, done that! Indeed, the easiest course of action is to
> throw our hands up in the air, claim that some students do not have
> the "programming gene," and simply give up on these students. This, of
> course, goes contrary to the fact that we all have the same basic
> general hardware. There should be little doubt that if a person can
> read and write they can perform abstraction. If a person can hold a
> job, have friends, have a family, drive a car, or play board games and
> cards, then they can learn to program. Like it or not, we all perform
> programming tasks all our lives. Perhaps, we do not implement them
> using a programming language but we do program them. Simply stated,
> humans can not function without programming their activities (from
> cave dwellers to modern man).
>
> I have dealt with tough grossly under-prepared students in my CS
> classes.

Then sorry you haven't been there and done that because your students
have passed  through the filter of a university admissions system and
they do not bear comparison with the students I am teaching.