To teach is to touch lives forever

Abstract

The title of this talk comes from a little book that I bought years ago, compiled by S.M. Scott. It includes fictional stories and quotations about teaching, reminiscences by former pupils about their teachers, etc. The title of the book is what caught my eye, since this is how I like to view the role teachers ought to play in people's lives.I truly believe that teachers constitute the cornerstone of any successful implementation of a program of study, on any level. Moreover, I think that beyond the mastery of the actual professional material they plan to teach, good teachers should also have deep and broad knowledge of the entire subject of which that material is part, and they must have the ability to convey the material to others correctly and reliably, to provide perspective, and to infuse the students with interest, curiosity, and enthusiasm. All this requires an educator to be more of an intellectual, at least in what concerns the relevant field at large.In the talk I'll try to elaborate on the teachers' role, and to discuss the principles that should underlie a good study program, while emphasizing high school computer science curricula. Thus, I will touch upon what I think should be the core issues for computer science education research. I will also share some anecdotes from my own life, which at the time motivated me to get involved in teaching and educating, in designing computer science study programs and in their implementation, and paved the way to my doing research on teaching the fundamentals of computer science.