First, my early education was a long time ago, and on a different continent to that mentioned in this post. Things are probably considerably different now to the way the were back before the big bang:^)
However, I think the biggest problem with most Computer Studies education prior to about 15 y.o (probably varies with location), is that it is way too structured and formal. There is far too much emphasis, at those early stages, on stuff like math, 'computer science' and worst of all, the history of computing.
Math has it's own place and time in the curriculum and should more than adequately handle a child's math needs for computing until they reach the stage where they start choosing to specialise in computing in some form or another.
The science of computing (though it's arguable as to how much science there really is) is fine and dandy at degree level studies, but earlier only serves (IMNSHO) to confuse and detract from the the fun of the art.
I well remember the stuff I did for my first national level certificate (CSE, there was no O-Level back then) in computing. I learned about Ada Lovelace, Babbage's Difference Engine, Hollerith cards and weaving looms. Stuff I now find fascinating, but back then just boring when all I wanted to do was get on and program. I can honestly say that I cannot remember a single instance in nearly 30 years when that stuff has been of any use except in trivial pursuits and after hours bar discussions. The sad thing is that, if I remember correctly, some 20% of the final exam (1 question) was based upon discussing Holerith cards!
Imagine that you started trying to teach your baby to talk by explaining the structure of sentences, the distinction between past and present participles and the reasons why they shouldn't split their infinitives or use double negatives. What's missing from the syllabus is the baby steps. The time to play and learn by doing and making mistakes. That's the way many a self-taught, computer enthusiast (I'm avoiding the word hacker because of both it's negative and positive connotations), has learnt to program. Many of them have gone on to become the luminaries of the field.
My father was a carpenter, and he was sadly disappointed with the stuff I brought home from the woodwork classes at school. Every mortise & tenon joint showed more wedge than tenon, each dovetail looked like the doves appendage had been through a mincer. His answer to my sloppiness was markedly different to that of my woodwork teachers. Instead of drilling me with the 'measure twice-cut once' adage or emphasising (yet again) the importance of a tidy workbench and keeping my chisels sharp, he sat me down (as fathers are apt to do) with a piece of wood and a pen-knife and suggested that I carve things. Simple things to start and gradually more ambitious. I was never very good at it, but my joints improved considerably. The reason was that I acquired a feel for how the wood would split along the grain and learnt how that by making cross-grain cuts before the with-grain cut it would prevent the splitting from going where I didn't want it to. Of course, my woodwork teacher had made the same observation many times, but by learning it myself by trial and error, it became second nature to do things that way instead of another bloody rule that I had to remember.
I saw (or was given) a link to an extraordinary story about the way uneducated (in any field) kids in Bombay (India) adapted to the presence of a computer in their midst in a recently. I'll add the link if I can find it. I also found a reference to the same story, though briefer, at the bbc.
I guess what I am saying is that I don't think that we should be in a hurry to formalise the teaching of computers at an early age. Binary, octal and stuff is better dealt with by teaching general numeric base stuff (like Napier's Bones) in math class. Let the kids loose on computers and enjoy them and get a feel for what they can do (beside playing doom:^) before we bore the pants off them with Babbage and Lovelace or boggle their minds with two-compliment binary or BNF.
In reply to Re: Computer Education in Public Schools
by BrowserUk
in thread Computer Education in Public Schools
by dystrophy
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