This blog post by Joel Spolsky makes a case for teaching low-level stuff that I find very compelling. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000319.html

This blog post by Joel Spolsky makes a case for teaching low-level stuff that I find very compelling. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000319.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000319.html Someone who hasn't thought about sorting algorithms is likely to implement a "Shlemiel the painter" solution without even realizing that their problem is fundamentally sorting related.