"I think in these sorts of classes it'd actually be a good idea to spend several weeks looking at other peoples code and analyzing what it does." I think that

"I think in these sorts of classes it'd actually be a good idea to spend several weeks looking at other peoples code and analyzing what it does." I think that would just result in a lot of students dropping out. As a beginner, it's nice to get the computer to actually do something - even if it's just printing out a stupid message.