App Camp Gave written instructions for what we were doing and why. The high school students (who were preparing to be mentors) jumped to the end to see the final code and ignored all the explanation. They learned nothing When asked to help the middle schoolers, they would pull out their phones and compare the code (line by line). ARGGGGG. (So we removed the code from the instructions.) The middle schoolers were never content to just reproduce the sample app. The mentors who had learned by copying were worthless.

Students would say… Don’t tell me what to do, show me. They learned how to copy. My friends in education tell me that reading the problem statement and figuring out what is involved is a critical skill.

Daughter… I have a daughter who manages a team of IT folks who are contract workers. She said it is so frustrating as they have learned how to do one thing. If you change anything, they can’t handle it. They don’t understand the building blocks, but only know “if you see X, do Y.”

What I love about programming The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.... Fred Brooks

What I love about programming When you are presented with a problem, you have to figure out what can be done given the resources you have. What is possible? What is efficient? What is really wanted? How should it be coded so others can understand it? If someone gave me a problem and made every decision for me, just coding it is BORING! Making good decisions takes practice. You will be solving problems that haven’t yet been thought of using languages that haven’t been invented. The only skill that will always be in demand is the ability to solve problems.

Urban Legend… One day the FedEx processing facility in Memphis completely stopped dead - usually it is controlled mayhem with the packages and machines running - the silence was deafening - thousands of dollars lost every minute. They brought in the best expert they could find. He investigated and went to a single box in the plant, opened a door, and turned one bolt with a wrench and everything restarted. The plant came back to life. He sent them a bill for $10,000. When FedEx protested the bill - "You just turned a single bolt! Anyone could have done that" - he itemized it and sent it back. . Turning a bolt $ 1 Knowing which bolt to turn $9,999 Some want me to tell them how to turn a bolt. I need you to learn which bolt to turn (in systems you have never seen before).

Memorizing isn’t learning Never has been, but with google, just reproducing facts has little merit. Mathematics is often taught as rules to be learned. Given the fact that most students I encounter have had 15+ years of math, I am amazed at how little many really understand. Math professor: “Trained monkeys can do it. It doesn’t become interesting until grad school”

Some thoughts… We all learn differently. Be in charge of your own education If you learn best by trying code to see what happens, by all means, do it! The code from the book is all electronically available. Run it! If you learn best by reading code, the book is full of code to read. So is the internet. Read it! If you learn best by experimenting with small sections of code, do it! If you learn best by copying code of others, do that (in problems YOU make up)

Blooms taxonomy

Once asked a lady I knew if she would be willing to teach our daughter piano. She hesitated and then asked, “She already know the notes and can read music, right?”