Don't teach students the hard way first

1 · David Robinson · Sept. 21, 2017, 2 p.m.
Imagine you were going to a party in an unfamiliar area, and asked the host for directions to their house. It takes you thirty minutes to get there, on a path that takes you on a long winding road with slow traffic. As the party ends, the host tells you “You can take the highway on your way back, it’ll take you only ten minutes. I just wanted to show you how much easier the highway is.” Wouldn’t you be annoyed? And yet this kind of attitude is strangely common in programming education. I was rec...