Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!MITRE.ARPA!mcgurrin
From: mcgurrin@MITRE.ARPA
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Apple soft/hardware "lock"
Message-ID: <8810312153.AA19445@mitre.arpa>
Date: 31 Oct 88 21:53:48 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The MITRE Corp., Washington, D.C.
Lines: 43

I agree with Brint on teachers versus school board.  Similar to school boards
dictating what books to put into libraries (this is worse than most cases of
the latter, where certain books are banned, but at least the library isn't
limited to a few books on some "accepted" list).  

On another point, I think computers can be used in many cases as a tool like a a
film projector.  Nothing wrong with this type of use, and one doesn't spend 
time studying how to run a projector or how motors work to use one in history
class.  For this use, programming access by students isn't needed.  

Two other PC uses are what I'll call "basic computer literacy" and "real
computer science" classes.  I think basic literacy classes have a very 
limited use.  Most students will pick it up from the tool use in other 
classes.  I can see a benefit in the job market if a student has been 
exposed to spreadsheets or word processing, but this is strictly as a 
trades type of class.  Otherwise, teach a real computers course, it's a much
better use of limited time.  Teach how a computer works, start with basic
ASSEMBLY language programs, then move into a higher language.  

My own high school had PDP-8 machines (pre-PC days).  The "computer programming
" course was mostly a joke.  Rules like don't ever touch the switches on the
front.  Don't worry about what the lights and switches mean or do, etc.
Even the instructor could only boot the machine by rote memory.  The computer
science course, on the other hand, was great.  It turned out to be my only
organized exposure to assembly language, and down the road it let me at
least understand the principles involved, even if I've rarely actually
programmed in assembly much.  Also concepts like indirect addressing make
it a lot easier to understand pointers in C.  The folks in the C course I
took recently who had only been exposed to FORTRAN really had trouble with
the whole concept.  In the course we first reviewed the history and basic
theory, than did things like write a teletype printer driver, etc.  Thanen
moved into Focal programming.  PCs offer the same opportunities.  One of the
reasons our school bought PDPs was that so much more valuable experience 
could be gained when compared with the time-sharing system they had been using.

Final comment:  Make sure your kids at least know how to type, even if they
don't know PCs.  I feel sorry for the mostly older guys around where I 
work who must slowly hunt and peck around a keyboard.  

O.K., really final comment this time:  I'd be surprised if whatever solution
they come up with really keeps out the dedicated hacker kids.  They'll see it
as a challenge to be met (maybe that's the educational objective :-)), but
it will probably play havoc with legitimate use, especially copy protection
schemes.  Anyone want to take bets on this? [note to net gods: just kidding].