As a programmer you know that being able to program changes the
way that you think. Algorithmic thought is different from the
messy stuff that most people use to work out the problems that
they face. This is, of course the best reason for teaching
programming to as many people as possible. On a more modest
note, programming and computers also provides an easy an
accessible route into mathematics in general. You have to keep
in mind that despite what you have been told over the years,
math is not about adding up or multiplying. No - that is
arithmetic and it is what a cheap pocket calculator can do with
no effort or intelligence. Math is about much more complicated
stuff than arithmetic even if arithmetic is a prime (no pun
intended) example of something that mathematicians study. I've
encountered too many mathematicians who were brainwashed by
their early experiences and held the position that without being
good at numbers you can't be a mathematician. This is just silly
and it is nice to hear from a mathemat