By the time you've done two years of an A-level, you'll have picked up a lot more than 'Programming for Dummies'. I saw a lot of people on my course go from no programming ability to would-make-a-good-developer during those two years. Plus, by the time they finished they also knew whether they wanted to take it further - and, if they had the ability to do so.

Going back to the original poster, their issue was that the language chosen for them to learn initially was a complex one. Because of that experience, people who had the intelligence and enthusiasm for computing - but, lacking the experience of how alien computer languages can appear - may have been put off entirely, and the industry a worse place for it. People learn at different rates, and assuming that everyone should start on possibly the most complex mainstream language in existence smacks of elitism.

Before I start, please learn how to quote posts properly. It makes dismissing your points so much easier.

A Levels aren't about 'institutions producing the best'. They are about learning a subject to a reasonable level, before potentially going on to study it at university. Furthermore, programming is only a part of the qualification.

They are also a University. A Levels are not taught at University. This isn't about trying to weed people out, it's about trying to bring them into a subject. If the post as quoted does represent your true attitude - rather than just being a clumsy attempt at a troll with Dilbertian comparisons thrown in - then elitist attitudes such as yours don't help.

It tells me that the class is not made up of people with previous programming experience, but rather people who needed to be taught programing concepts first, not a specific programming language.

C++ will thin the herd a bit, get rid of people who haven't the apptitude. Thats if the institution wants to produce the best. If you want some mediocre Java/.NET drones then go with the soft approach.

Just to clarify, are you stating "Don't learn this, because I think they teach different things in a University in another country"? I quite honestly do not understand the point that you're making.

Stanford is the gold standard for CS education, therefore what they teach should be emulated as it produces the calibre of students who came up with Google etc.

My A level course taught Pascal. My degree covered Modula-2, Mathematica, Miranda, Prolog, 68000 assembler, and a few more I can't remember offhand. I don't think not having been taught any of these at A level caused me any problems.

Agreed. We had a horrid time in college (UK) - the first year we were taught C++ (which about 3 of the 25 managed to get a grasp of). The second year the college forced us to instead do VB6, and we can all guess what effect that had... It would be much better for students (and future prospects for any UK programmers) if they chucked VB6 also. Perhaps for some .net language.