Computing is a Liberal Art

Dear First Gen Twenty Year Olds,

At this moment in 2025 in the ol’ US-of-A, traditional higher education is seen as overvalued and even suspect. Not everywhere, but the view is spreading.

My advice about pursuing higher-higher-ed is this: the long standing deal of trading money for stability and freedom is not on the table anymore in this country and you should know that before diving in to graduate school or academia. Higher education will continue, but its career preparation purpose is overtaking any broader notion of knowledge seeking in its own right. I’m not happy about this, but I think it’s true and someone should tell you.

Continue reading Behold First Gen Faculty: Beware (or Be Bold)

It is 2025: 3 years since I have been away from Bard College (NY), after teaching there for 13 years, and 27 years since I graduated from Paulsboro High School (NJ). These two places could not be more different, but both are led by incredibly HUGE personalities. Two educators that run their institutions, and their surrounding communities, through a mix of success and strong personalities. Both are educators, but don’t really teach in a conventional way. Yes, they teach gym and first-year seminar—I’ll leave it to you to figure out which is which—but, they are much more youth leaders than pedagogues.

Continue reading On Raptors and Red Raiders; College Presidents and HS Wrestling Coaches

I recently came across Peter Naur’s 1985 essay “Programming as Theory Building.” I am unsure how well his argument holds up nearly 30 years later in professional software development, but in computer science education, especially at a liberal arts college, it is an absolute revelation. In many ways, it perfectly captures why I detest the term "coding" and prefer “programming”. I wish I could find a hard-copy of Computing: A Human Activity.
Continue reading Coding & Programming as Theory Building

I have lived in our current house longer than I have lived anywhere my entire life and we are moving later this month (next week!). While rummaging through boxes I have carried to New York, from New Jersey by way of Georgia — Smyrna, West Atlanta and Marietta, Georgia — one box held a collection of floppy disks from high school (1994–1998). I bought a USB floppy disk reader to resurrect this artifact.

Continue reading Processing Twenty Years of Programming