To say that every single Computer Science student should study certain topics is inherently against my or Brown's philosophy. However, there is a lot of valuable information discussed within this article. I agree that there are certain aspects that should be indoctrinated wherever a student is studying cs (theory, abstraction, and design) and that these are the fundamental rubrics of a well rounded cs education.

The arena that interested me was the look into interactive lectures and mandatory laboratory work. I am not sure if programming assignments as they exist at Brown are laboratory or not; nevertheless, I think that Computer Science can not be digested via the standard lecture format. It is one justification for ta hours that go far and away beyond any sort of support system provided by another discipline.

A major question that I have is what is the point of a cs education? This paper took into contention those who were entering industry, academics, and theoretical pursuits. I am not positive if the role of a computer science educator is to prepare people for one of if not three of these possible areas. Is industry the ultimate goal, or is grad school? There are such fundamental differences about what is important (social contexts, resources, theory versus practice) that it seems virtually impossible to stress all aspects of the cs field. These are aspects of our gisp that I would like to see addressed: what exactly are cs educators responsible for? Should their be industry versus academic tracks? Who are we ultimately responsible to? What do we owe to the students to make them ready for the next level, whatever it may be?

A couple of people have mentioned the role of a CS department in preparing it's students for the world, Saul's just lucky that I'm choosing to address it on his paper :) I think that it is not necessarily the role of the department to make sure that a student is getting the most rounded education in his/her field. Especially at Brown where we offer so much flexibility, I believe that students are capable of deciding what their goals are for the future. As long as a department offers all the resources necessary for a student to go to an area they desire, the department is doing enough for me. It is the obligation of the students to take the classes that will keep their education broad. Hopefully they will take classes outside of CS that will do this as well.