High School Programming, Good or Bad?

I recently read a blog that discussed the disadvantages of high school programming. Roman Zimine's perspective on the topic was that first year college computer science students are at a disadvantage if they had previously programmed in high school. The author stated that, "those who take programming courses in high school can find themselves at a disadvantage, as they have to unlearn bad programming habits while learning a new and very different language." While there are certainly cases of poor teaching and bad habits in some schools, this does not mean that all students will have the same problem.

I took programming courses in high school and I did not find myself any worse off than students who had not had programming prior to college; in fact I had a better understanding of basic concepts such as declaring variables and standard libraries. In no way was I disadvantaged by taking high school classes. The author had based his thoughts on his CS135 class in Scheme. This was the introduction language of choice for his university. Scheme is a functional language which is often very difficult to write in. Functional program languages often require a strong background in mathematics and recursion. Scheme would obviously be difficult for a freshman to comprehend having few if any mathematics courses.

Programming in high school can give an advantage to most students. It is of course possible to have a bad instructor which may lead to poor habits but most likely students will learn the basics of programming as well as using compilers. Although I disagree with the authors position of programming is bad in high school, I do agree with him that students often choose to go into the computer science field based on their grades in high school. He said, "They may think “Well, I’m getting 75% in English, 80% in Math, and 91% in Computer Science… I guess I’ll apply to a Computer Science program!" Grades in high school can be misleading; course difficulty in high school is much easier than any college course. High school can be a great opportunity to experience programming and other computer science topics as well as preparing you for college. The best way to ensure you are getting the most out of high school programming classes is to challenge yourself and practice programming outside of the classroom.