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Re: How to get one interested in programming!

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On 6/30/2011 1:39 AM, Alf P. Steinbach /Usenet wrote:
...
> There are mental differences between males and females. To wit, very few
> programmers (or mathematicians, or physicists, or ...) are females.
> Whatever the cause -- my personal theory has to do with how the brain
> forms models of things, for females more purely associative models that
> cannot easily be "run" or "evolved" -- it means that you *probably* have
> an uphill battle.
>
> I think the key must be to adapt your approach to the individual at
> hand. Use examples that at least in some aspects touch on things that
> she's interested in. Familiarity may be crucial (you state that she's
> scared by "think language books"), so perhaps start with web pages and
> such, and a bit of JavaScript.
>
> Perhaps then Python and turtle graphics.
>
> Be patient, and be flexible. Remember the statistics about female
> programmers. Depending on the individual, what you're trying *may* be an
> unnatural act.
...

Programming is an unnatural act for everyone. Cave men didn't do any
more programming than cave women. It is always a learned skill, not an
instinct, or even something like natural languages for which we have a
built-in learning skill.

When I got my first programming job, in 1970, many programmers were
women. Indeed, some of the best programmers I've ever met, including
Grace Hopper, were female. I would not have wanted to be the person to
try to tell her that her brain structure might be inherently unsuited
for programming.

The programming-as-a-boy-thing nonsense only appeared after it became
apparent that programming was important and a good career choice. Women
were considered fine at it when it was a small, esoteric, and not
particularly well paid field.

Early exposure to programming is no more necessary than being male. I
didn't write my first program until I was almost 18, and only did enough
programming to decide I liked it before getting my first programming
job. I worked in the computer industry, as a programmer and computer
architect, for over 30 years. I have both a master's degree and a
doctorate in computer science, and was an inventor on half a dozen
computer design patents.

I agree with rossum's practical advice, for anyone, male or female,
wanting to pick up programming. Work from existing interests. Separate
learning to represent tasks in terms of smaller tasks from learning the
syntax of a language.

Above all, tell her that she can do it, not that she can't. The
teacher's belief that the student can learn is important for learning
anything.

Patricia

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How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-06-29 22:49 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! "Alf P. Steinbach /Usenet" <alf.p.steinbach+usenet@gmail.com> - 2011-06-30 10:39 +0200
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-06-30 06:58 -0700
      Re: How to get one interested in programming! "Alf P. Steinbach /Usenet" <alf.p.steinbach+usenet@gmail.com> - 2011-06-30 23:17 +0200
      Re: How to get one interested in programming! blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-07-02 19:28 +0000
      Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 01:09 -0700
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-01 00:45 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! rossum <rossum48@coldmail.com> - 2011-06-30 10:18 +0100
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-01 00:49 -0700
      Re: How to get one interested in programming! Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-01 05:19 -0700
        Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 01:26 -0700
          Re: How to get one interested in programming! Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-03 06:38 -0700
            Re: How to get one interested in programming! Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-07-03 09:03 -0700
              Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 12:29 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! Joe Wright <joewwright@comcast.net> - 2011-07-03 20:04 -0400
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! "James" <no@spam.invalid> - 2011-07-03 17:06 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-05 22:17 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-07 04:31 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! "James" <no@spam.invalid> - 2011-07-11 22:23 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-12 00:32 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! "Chris M. Thomasson" <cristom@charter.net> - 2011-07-12 00:50 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-13 00:36 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! "Chris M. Thomasson" <cristom@charter.net> - 2011-07-12 00:52 -0700
                Re: How to get one interested in programming! blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-07-12 23:39 +0000
      Re: How to get one interested in programming! "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2011-07-02 11:46 +0100
        Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 01:27 -0700
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 00:51 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! Sherm Pendley <sherm.pendley@gmail.com> - 2011-06-30 09:52 -0400
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 00:50 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! Jongware <jongware@no-spam.plz> - 2011-06-30 17:05 +0200
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 01:16 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! JJ <jaejunks@googlemail.com> - 2011-07-01 02:31 +0700
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 01:20 -0700
  Re: How to get one interested in programming! Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2011-07-03 12:02 +0200
    Re: How to get one interested in programming! vaib <vaibhavpanghal@gmail.com> - 2011-07-03 12:07 -0700

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