Vviewpoints
DOI: 10.1145/1965724.1965738
Viewpoint
non-myths About
programming
Viewing computer science in a broader context to dispel
common misperceptions about studying computer science.
This VieWpOint is based on my keynote speech at the Sixth International Com- puting Education Research Workshop, held in Aarhus,
Denmark last summer. The talk began
with the presentation of a short play,
Aunt Jennifer, in which Tiffany, a high
school student, attributes her mother’s dreary and poverty-stricken life as
a checkout clerk in a supermarket to
rotten luck, while attributing the pleasant life of her Aunt Jennifer, a software
engineer, to good luck. Despite her
high grades in mathematics, Tiffany
rejects her guidance counselor’s offer to help her obtain a scholarship to
study computer science.a
Photogra Ph courtesy of nasa
The decline of interest in studying
computer science is usually attributed to a set of perceptions that students have about the subject. Many
educators react to these perceptions
as if they were myths and try to refute
them. I believe the perceptions of students are roughly true when viewed in
isolation, and that the proper way to
address these non-myths is to look at
them within the context of “real life.”
When examined in a broader context, a
more valid image of computer science
can be sketched, and this can be used
to provide more accurate guidance to
students who are deliberating whether
to study computer science.
a The script of the play can be downloaded from
http://stwww.weizmann.ac.il/g-cs/benari/articles/
aunt-jennifer.pdf.
Margaret hamilton, chief software engineer for the development of the nASA Apollo program
flight software, sitting in a mockup of the Apollo space capsule while checking programs
she and her team developed. hamilton received an Exceptional Space Act Award, one of only
128 awards granted from 1990 through 2003.
Here, I will express the non-myths
in terms of programming.
non-Myth #1:
Programming is Boring
It is one of the unfortunate facts of life
that all professions become routine
and even boring once you develop a
certain level of skill. Of course there are
innumerable “McJobs”—intrinsically
boring occupations in factories and
service industries—that many people
must do. But even prestigious profes-
sions are not exempt from boredom:
I have heard physicians and attorneys
complain about boredom. Consider
physicians: either you become a gen-
eral practitioner and at least 9 out of
10 patients come to you with routine,
“boring,” complaints, or you become a
specialist, adept at performing a small
number of procedures. After you have
done them hundreds or thousand
times, surely boredom sets in.
