If you are interested in the subject of the evolution of teaching about computing subjects in schools at all levels, and in all fields, this book is essential reading. However, there are a couple of caveats to that extremely positive recommendation:

1. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that this book is about the history of teaching computing people about computers. The subject of the origins of teaching computer science, information systems, and (much later) software engineering is a fascinating one, but not the one this book is intended to cover. (I mention that primarily because I agreed to review the book thinking it was about the latter subject, not the former!)

2. The book is an amazingly diverse experience in geography, with contributions from authors across all of the world’s continents. However, oddly and almost inconceivably, only one of those contributions is about the teaching of computing topics in the US (and then only one of the two authors of that contribution is actually from the US).

This book is a collection of personal recollections of experiences by its guest authors of what happened in their respective countries when the subject of teaching using computers was first broached. It includes a lot about political initiatives and stories about early-day successes and failures. Far more of the book is about contemporary philosophy than actual history. Even the history of the history, however, is fascinating: history for this subject area primarily begins in the 1980s, making it a relatively recent time period compared to any other conceivable history subject.

Since this is a collection of guest papers, the diversity among them is also fascinating. For example, one of the contributions is primarily about the teaching of history from the (negative) point of view of colonialism and racism, a viewpoint with which I personally sympathize, and yet I found myself appalled by the amount of bias present in that particular presentation.

Most of the papers were relatively factual, presenting dates and events that characterized the evolution of the teaching about computing. There was, however, an occasional flash of an opinion; for example, one author concluded: “In my opinion, programming should be a small but important part of the curriculum” (this author, and others, noted that if teaching programming is included in the computing curriculum, it tends to swamp all of the other subjects in terms of time consumed). Another paper noted that there had been a national task force formed to make recommendations about the teaching of computing in that nation’s schools, but the field was moving so fast that the subject was introduced in the schools before the task force could formulate its recommendation.

The book’s 30-odd papers tended to present these viewpoints:

• In the early days, the abilities of those teaching the computing subject were almost non-existent. One paper noted that, even before the first semester began, two potential teachers of the subject had resigned (presumably because they felt inadequate for the task).
• Because of a shortage of computer hands-on time, the tendency was to teach computing hardware theory rather than computing usage. Most authors saw this as a step in the wrong direction, given the needs of the students.
• There were few available textbooks on the subject matter. Many authors referred to the common use of handouts.

One common debate of the time was whether computing should be taught “across the curriculum” (embedded in the subject matter of the topics to which it applied), or as a separate topic. Most authors agreed that the “across the curriculum” approach was preferable, but as a practical matter difficult to achieve.