[prog] Who were your best CompSci teachers?

[Andrea Landaker]

> Teaching linked-lists and C in a University setting is like teaching
> algebra in this setting.  Its simply not challenging as a higher education
> material.

Well, you have to learn it sometime.  Are you going to exclude everyone who 
didn't have a chance to learn programming in high school from getting a CS 
degree?  I had two years of computer science in high school, but I *still* 
hadn't learned basic algorithms and things like that (probably because we had 
no textbook and 3/4 of the people in the class just wanted to play Solitaire, 
and I was busy learning things I knew how to learn, like HTML).  A person 
should be able to major in whatever they want in college, regardless of 
previous experience or lack thereof.

However, I do agree that basic CS classes should be skippable if a student can 
demonstrate competence in these areas already (such as by taking the final, 
or submitting a programming project that demonstrates competency, or 
something).  I have also met many people that *think* they are competent in 
these areas because they have been programming for a long time, but in 
reality they know nothing about basic algorithms or making things efficient 
or things like that (no one here; mostly people in classes or at work).  This 
is perhaps why many teachers are reluctant to allow students to skip these 
classes -- it is difficult to tell the difference between students that think 
they are competent and students that really are, without making up elaborate 
tests and projects that take up everyone's time.

-- 
Andrea Landaker
http://www.icecavern.net/~qirien/