Language? (Score 1)

It has been said that if one learns how to play a musical instrument then it is easier to learn to play a related instrument, i.e. tenor sax & alto sax or piano and organ. The same is said for language. If one learns German, Scandinavian languages (English, too) should be a fairly quick study. In my discipline, Christian theology, I learned to read both Attic & Koine' Greek and biblical Hebrew. My undergrad college had a requirement that Attic was a prereq for Koine' so I was pretty well prepared for the relative easiness that was New Testament Greek. Latin, although not formally required either in my B.A. or M.Div., I find so similar to Greek in grammar and syntax and a fair amount of vocabulary that it would be fairly straightforward. Related, Hebrew provides a good foundation for other ancient Semitic languages such as Ugaritic and in it's modern context Arabic. But since I went back to school to pick up a degree in CS about 10 yrs ago (never finished, btw--wanted to learn to be a *NIX sysadmin and still do) I was reminded of a very valid point in my first semester of Attic: how many people graduating from an American HS know how to identify parts of speech, know the rules of standard English grammar, distinguish clause types, or simply diagram a sentence? Learning Greek as I did absolutely made me cognizant of my own native language and my wife (4 yrs of French), both of us cringe at what passes for final copy in newspapers, even prominent newspapers. All of this is to ask if programming language instruction should have a necessary prerequisite of standard English grammar & syntax, and, no, the silly English composition courses that are mandatory in virtually all core curricula don't count. Additionally, would it be better if language instruction was indeed seen properly within the discipline of linguistics rather than a sub-discipline of mathematics? Lastly, since programming is invariably applied logic does it not follow that a fundamental course in logic would be necessary? Then again, how many philosophy departments require logic before jumping into its sub-disciplines? (Logic is probably seen as an artifact of dead white male European colonial hegemony...but I digress...) The classical trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) that is the foundation of the liberal arts HAS to be recognized in the discipline of CS. Trying to teach CS apart from a proper understanding of the above would be shortchanging students by making them not truly prepared.