I didn't get as much out of this paper as I did the rest. This seemed to be the classic example of how to teach CS, but it seemed rather out of date (a lot has happened since 1984). What I found most interesting was the fact that even in 1984 educators were advocating for hand simulation, print lines for debugging, testing, and lab sections.

This started to make me wonder, if people were talking about implementing these things in 1984 why are people still saying the same things instead of acting on them?

For one thing, debugging is something that is not emphasized nearly enough. As I think about it more and more, it seems like TA hours are used as a substitute for debugging. When I was waiting to ask a question, the most common thing I saw was TA's looking through people's code and telling them what was wrong. For some errors, this is necessary. I admit I had a few errors I couldn't find. Some things are problems with support code or so subtle that they may need a more experienced eye to catch it, but students could catch most errors. If more emphasis was placed on hand simulation, "println-ing," and using debuggers students would be better prepared to deal with programs when there are no TA's to help them. Debugging is a necessary skill, as CS016 has quickly taught me. I think any CS student should have the importance of debugging ingrained in them, as it is a tool they will use for the rest of their CS lives.

That's basically all I have to say on this...

Hmmm, you feel more emphasis on debugging and println'ing should be made? How? We posted to the newsgroup, the MOTD, said it in class, at hours and still the students didn't do it.

Do you think we should mandate it? I know we do that in CS32, but supposedly the students are "more mature? by the time they take this course. Are students too immature programming-wise as beginners that we should hold their hands?

This raises a question I have as an educator. What is the TA's responsibility to the student? Hold their hands all the time, for awhile? Certainly I believe that it is better to teach a person to fish than to give them fish, but is it possible with beginners? I'd like to think so, though I have no proof either way. What do you all think?