FOREWORD 前言
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In the beginning of the 1950s I had the privilege of using the first available programmable computer in Switzerland, Zuse 4, to write my doctoral thesis at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) in Zürich. The first steps in our country in computer sciences, later combined under the name “informatics“, only gradually found their way into cantonal universities, particularly the recognition of informatics as a separate scientific discipline. At the ETHZ it was only in 1974 that the group of computer science professors got their own institute in computer science and it took until 1981 for an entire department of computer science to be initiated. The rapid development of the performance and the miniaturization of computers significantly contributed to a huge increase in data production. This led to an enormous expansion of data communications, which could only be accomplished with a more widespread use of computers. Consequently, communication techniques had to be expanded and access to them had to be enabled. On our planet, which is threatened by an increasing growth of populations and their demands for better living conditions, Switzerland can only maintain its position as one of the wealthiest and most advanced countries with an exquisite standard of living, and direct democracy by having a modern and efficient education system with high quality research. However, this requires not only taking account of the latest developments in the ICT sector in an optimal expansion of our universities, but also a redesign of the basic education offered in primary and secondary schools, as well as the teaching of computer science in grammar schools. The three basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic are no longer sufficient to ensure a satisfactory existence in today’s world, where computers play a key role in personal and professional life. As the former Director of the Federal Office for Education and Science, I fought for establishing computer science as a separate subject in grammar schools. 由此产生的一个问题是，将信息和通信技术学科纳入教学计划是否就足够了，还是应该教授更全面的计算机科学知识，以便更好地使用现代计算机技术。学习平台 TigerJython 的作者展示了如何通过使用 Python 编程语言和教学设计的编程环境，以简单的方式教授计算机科学中最重要的概念，对这一问题给出了具体的答案。这为他们建议在六年级开设计算机科学课程奠定了良好的基础。以下是瑞士最近发布的新闻稿，题为 "Die Schweizer EGovernmentAngebote sind im internationalen Vergleich nur Mittelmass...Die Schweiz ist unter den europäischen Staaten gar auf den vorletzten Platz zurückgefallen"，在我看来，这表明有必要对这一建议做出及时回应，因为这一令人震惊的倒退首先是由于教育机构中计算机科学知识的不足造成的。在我们这个拥有高密度计算机的富裕国家，并不缺乏纠正这种倒退所需的必要物质条件！
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