Re: PROGRAMMING HOMEWORK HELP!

From: James Rogers (jimmaureenrogers_at_att.net)
Date: 03/31/04 

Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 05:39:34 GMT

Michael Mendelsohn <keine.Werbung.1300@michael.mendelsohn.de> wrote in
news:4069FDC5.9ADB0903@michael.mendelsohn.de:

> That is not my problem.
> My problem is that students are left in the dark what these deadlines
> mean, and how to cope with them. I agree that they should know this
> when they leave school, but that doesn't mean they may not be told
> about it while in school, does it?

I am truly surprised that a student does not understand what a
deadline means by the time he or she arrives at the university.
There should have been very many assignments with deadlines from
early in the student's school career.

Students have been exposed to deadlines for completion of work
related to written composition, mathematics, history, science,
and many other subjects since they were first able to read and
write.

What is different about a deadline for a programming exercise?

>
> I also do not understand why it should be that only those with no
> programming background have the need to experience this kind of
> stress.

Do you have any proof that this is truly the situation?
Are the students with no programming background the only ones to
have deadlines and externally imposed requirements for programming
exercises?

> Erm. Or it may not be part of teh proscribed curriculum, and teh
> worload is such that even the interested student is discouraged from
> taking these courses.

Any student who thinks learning is a mechanical exercise satified
by spending a proscribed amount of time with a specified curriculum
is bound to struggle with understanding. I expect that all students
have been exposed to a broad range of subjects before attending a
university. While it is common for many university students to focus
strongly in a single area of major interest, what is learned in that
area must be fit into an understanding or world view that is shaped
by the knowledge gained in other subjects, some of which were learned
before entering the university.

There is nothing special about introductory programming courses in
this respect.

>
>> The University cannot make students thoughtful, creative, or
>> persistent. The University can only provide the environment and
>> situations to allow students to develop those qualities themselves.
>
> Stress is, in my experience, _not_ an environment that makes people
> thoughtful or creative.

I disagree. Panic inhibits thought and creativity. Stress provides the
motivation and energy to accomplish things one would never consider
accomplishing in the absence of stress.

Athletes only improve their performance through hard exercise which
results in sore muscles and fatigue. Similarly, academic improvement
only happens when a student works to extend his or her capabilities
beyond current comfort levels.

In a job you will be given a limited amount of time and money to
accomplish your tasks. This is true even if you have never accomplished
that task before. This need to respond to external time frames is a
fundamental aspect of human survival. Early hunter civilizations needed
to kill game and carry the food back to the tribe while the game was
available. They also needed to defend themselves from large
predators when the predators endangered their tribes or family units.
There was no time to do the work at each person's own pace. A person
could not tell an attacking lion to postpone its attack until the person
was ready to respond.

One must learn to respond to stress without resorting to panic. It is
a basic survival characteristic. Those who cannot deal with the
stresses of programming should seriously consider altering their
curriculum and academic plans to exclude programming. Not everybody is
suited to be a competent programmer, just as not everybody is suited to
be a poet or a chef.

Thinking of stress, have you ever investigated the curriculum and
stress existing in good cooking schools? Most introductory
programming courses are very mild by comparison.

Jim Rogers

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