The guidelines for teaching computers to post-high school age students are similar to the methods for teaching any other subject.

The main goals should be to engender a love of the subject. If the student loves the subject then the material will follow by itself. The student will need instruction, but the instruction will progress more successfully.

You might ask, "Isn’t it a waste of time to help the person achieve the love of the subject? During that time the student could be learning more ways to gain control over the computer!"

This is partially true. True, the entire time could be spent teaching new principles and skills, but in the long run, students learn more, have more stamina, and show more interest for their computer studies if they love it. This helps their natural curiosity to learn new principles, to learn new concepts, and even to be brave enough to experiment with new possibilities that were not taught.

In other words, the investment in time to help them prepare for their computer studies more than pays off in the long run.

Actually, this is the case with any subject. Students who are trained to love the subject can succeed more than those who are less motivated.

It is best to get potential programmers or computer students to become familiar with computers in general. In so doing, they will develop a desire to learn how the computer works, and it will make the programming much easier. It will also help them be able to explain the subject later to their clients.

I would thus propose an approach that is different from that in most schools. I would ask that students study application programs first, after which they can use this love and this feeling of accomplishment in order to find out why the programs run as they do.

This is also similar to asking students to view and evaluate different websites before developing them on their own.