Making a Case for Scripting Languages in CS 1

Much has been said and written about the drop in the number of new CS majors and minors since the turn of the new millennium. Over 50% of students who enroll in introductory CS courses for majors and minors end up either failing, dropping, or never taking another computer programming class. Several conjectures relate this drop to out-sourcing, the dot-com bust, the emphasis on Object Oriented Programming (OOP) languages in particular Java as the featured language, the professors who refuse to adapt to the changing times, and lastly, the "Lazy and unprepared" students. All of these may be contributing factors.