This handout relates to a discussion session on Dijkstra's paper "On the cruelty of really teaching computing science". The session and all its documents, including this one and the Dijkstra paper itself are, and will be, available from this URL: http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/educ/dijk.html





ARadical novelty

A1General arguments pro and con "radical novelty"

A2Historical evidence

A3Two novelties of computing equipment

A4Why these novelties are also radical

BConsequences, scientific and educational

B1The scientific consequences

B2Educational consequences

B2aGeneral educational consequences

B2bNo progress in education

B2cWhy the anthropomorphic metaphor is misleading

B2dBack to the programming

B2eDijkstra's course design

B2fYour objections to his course design because of your blindness ...