[Gllug] open source centric ICT in Schools from Sept 2012

[JLMS]

On 18 January 2012 14:31, Philip Hands <phil at hands.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:40:56 +0000, Rob Crowther <robertc at boogdesign.com> wrote:
>> On 18/01/2012 11:17, Tethys wrote:
>> >
>> > Christopher Currie writes:
>> >
>> >> For general programming skills (as opposed to games) wouldn't a better
>> >> grounding in modern or classical languages (taught at least partly in
>> >> the old fashioned way, with formal grammar and syntax, and some prose
>> >> composition) be more effective?
>> >
>> > No.
>> >
>> I was told in my first week at University that language aptitude
>> correlated at least as strongly as mathematical aptitude with later
>> ability to write programs.  This was in the "don't worry if you've never
>> done any programming before" part of the opening CS101 lecture.  I'm
>> fairly sure one of the reasons I got a better than average offer from
>> this University was because I'd done an English Lit A-level.
>
> That could easily be for reasons that would relate to Dykstra's attitude
> to BASIC -- I'm sure that given a choice between pretty much any arts
> student, and a geek who'd done a few years of BASIC in his spare time,
> Dykstra would have chosen to teach the arts student.
>
> Also, it must be nicer to teach people who know how to wash ;-)
>
> Cheers, Phil.

In a past life of mine I intermingled with artists for several years.

I can assure you that their personal hygiene left lots to be desired,
so nothing to win on that department by teaching them, if anything
some of them fit perfectly the stereotype of the nerd, but instead of
a computer they spend most of their time with their art...

The only obvious plus was that the ratio of males/females in the artsy
world didn't tend to infinite.
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