An educated guess is valid, but it's not a guarantee. I don't think the situation is nearly as bad as Dewar implies.

Having said that, education in America is definitely declining. IMHO that's by design, but that's another topic and I don't want to go off on a tangent.

I currently teach at my alma mater, and due to being the new guy and my lack of a PhD, I get stuck with teaching algebra. This is math I learned in junior high school, and I'm teaching it to college students who somehow graduated high school without basic math skills. That's a definite downward trend.


The language used isn't an issue. All Turing complete languages are conceptually equal. I'm not at all fond of Java, but concepts and principles can be taught as well with Java as with any other language. If universities are not teaching the basics, that's the fault of the universities, not a fault of the language they choose.


Unjustified assumption. Several of the top universities are doing an excellent job. That's why so many foreign students come to the US to get their CS degrees.

Here's my informal, not guaranteed, assessment: While the top students in other countries are easily the match for the top students in the US, the average CS graduate in the US can beat the pants off the average CS graduate in India, Japan, or whatever country you choose.


We're not any smarter than anyone else, just better educated than the young ones. I worked with engineers who earned their degrees in the 50's and 60's (not CS--CS degrees didn't exist then) who were much more knowledgeable than I. There's a downward trend in education, but I don't think it's as bad as Dewar seems to think--yet.