I've been doing some CS tutoring lately. I've seen the problem they identify (people try to memorize and re-use blocks of code without understanding them), but

I've been doing some CS tutoring lately. I've seen the problem they identify (people try to memorize and re-use blocks of code without understanding them), but I had little luck with their solution of breaking things down. Perhaps I did it poorly, not being a teacher by trade. I think we try to teach computer science like a science, when it more closely mirrors writing. Science is full of memorization; almost all of my science classes focused more on memorization than extrapolation. Computer science more closely resembles English to me. Scoping of variables is similar to scoping pronouns. Functions and their signatures vaguely resemble the subject-object-predicate structure of sentences. Large works are composed out of re-using the same few constructs. Writing is the act of taking an idea and crystallizing it in written form. Programming is the act of taking an action and crystallizing it in written form.