in reply to Problematic post on teaching programming

I take it you would not be keen on my proposed course, "Freshman Diligence Seminar", a mandatory seventeen-hour course (3 hrs Mon-Fri plus 2 hrs Saturday) for first-semester Freshmen, designed to impart the skills needed to succeed in college (e.g., verbatim memorization, good note-taking, library research, the ability to wade through voluminous quantites of collateral reading, and the ability to put down what one has learned in writing in a little blue book on short notice).

Okay, so I'm not 100% serious with that (albeit, I'm not 100% in jest, either). What I *really* think all college students should be required to take, that most schools unfortunately do not require, is a course in logic.

Sanity? Oh, yeah, I've got all kinds of sanity. In fact, I've developed whole new kinds of sanity. Why, I've got so much sanity it's driving me crazy.
  • Comment on Re: Worst blog post ever on teaching programming

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Re^2: Worst blog post ever on teaching programming
by trammell (Priest) on Apr 03, 2006 at 14:23 UTC
    What I *really* think all college students should be required to take, that most schools unfortunately do not require, is a course in logic.

    When I was an undergrad at RPI, the Symbolic Logic course was grouped with the Philosophy courses, and so it met the humanities credit distribution requirement. Everyone took symbolic logic. :-)

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      Symbolic logic isn't really what I had in mind. I was thinking a traditional logic course, covering inductive and deductive reasonings, components of an argument (premeses, conclusions, and so forth), common logical fallacies, and the like -- basically the ability to distinguish between valid reasoning and nonsense. Though, symbolic logic also would not go amiss.
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        I think the subject used to be called "Rhetoric", and it was once taught in college (sometimes even earlier). I agree that some effort should be made to teach people how to reason in a disciplined manner. Without that, much education is merely stuffing people full of facts that they may retain for a lifetime, but which they can't make much use of.

[reply]
        basically the ability to distinguish between valid reasoning and nonsense

        You'd think they'd teach that in grade 1. I weep for the future of mankind.
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