Teaching "About Programming"
This paper presents the goals and organization
of a course about programming designed to provide 
entering students in a graduate program with a cultural
enrichment in their professional lives.  The 
students are expected to have taken at least two programming
courses prior to this one and, therefore, 
to be familiar with at least two programming languages,
both as students and users.  Teaching someone 
how to program is similar to teaching him to play a musical
instrument: neither skill can be taught-they 
must be learned.  However, the teacher still serves
several vital purposes: to present a set of rules 
for producing well-formed utterances; to offer numerous
demonstrations of his own skill; and to function 
as an involved critic.  Finally, the teacher is the
source of information about the process in which 
the student is involved.
CACM July, 1973
Rosin, R. F.
