Shaggy dog story: when I was 9 my teacher assigned us homework that entailed writing an instructional essay on how to make the infamous PB&J sandwich. At the time I was a budding "programmer" and had recently seen a skit on a TV show that employed hijinks similar to
> * I brought a serrated knife and ketchup packets. When they said put the jelly on the bread with the knife, I gripped the serrated end and pretended my fingers bled (ketchup works great as blood).
> * I brought in vaseline AKA petroleum jelly. When they said put jelly on the bread, I contemplated aloud "Well, you said JELLY, and this says JELLY!"
...and so went into great prescriptive detail about exactly how I'd make said sandwich. After turning it in my teacher chose my essay specifically to repro onto a transparency and place on the overhead as an example of bad writing. Apparently being explicit about choice of ingredients, removing things from packaging, holding the bread, etc. was antithetical to the assignment and dismissed with laughter and eye rolls because "everybody knows" to do these things.
This was a bit of a blow to my fragile ego but in retrospect it was an important lesson in several concepts that you touch on later in your post such as good communication (the importance of considering one's audience), asking clarifying questions (because requirements are hard), and interactions with authority figures.
I say all of this to say that you should absolutely emphasize this less technical side of things. Soft skills are at least as important as technical aptitude when it comes to career mobility and emphasizing them early would give students a real leg up. While considering edge cases and assumptions is clearly important for computers it's also crucial to keep in mind how people understand processes and systems, i.e. when to be explicit and when to avoid patronizing those on the other end of your comms.
> teacher chose my essay specifically to repro onto a transparency and place on the overhead as an example of bad writing
Oh man, regardless of how "bad" someone's writing is, this is terrible terrible teaching. Public shaming in front of peers, especially on something subjective like this? Some people should not be teachers. I'm sorry you had to go through that.
> * I brought a serrated knife and ketchup packets. When they said put the jelly on the bread with the knife, I gripped the serrated end and pretended my fingers bled (ketchup works great as blood).
> * I brought in vaseline AKA petroleum jelly. When they said put jelly on the bread, I contemplated aloud "Well, you said JELLY, and this says JELLY!"
...and so went into great prescriptive detail about exactly how I'd make said sandwich. After turning it in my teacher chose my essay specifically to repro onto a transparency and place on the overhead as an example of bad writing. Apparently being explicit about choice of ingredients, removing things from packaging, holding the bread, etc. was antithetical to the assignment and dismissed with laughter and eye rolls because "everybody knows" to do these things.
This was a bit of a blow to my fragile ego but in retrospect it was an important lesson in several concepts that you touch on later in your post such as good communication (the importance of considering one's audience), asking clarifying questions (because requirements are hard), and interactions with authority figures.
I say all of this to say that you should absolutely emphasize this less technical side of things. Soft skills are at least as important as technical aptitude when it comes to career mobility and emphasizing them early would give students a real leg up. While considering edge cases and assumptions is clearly important for computers it's also crucial to keep in mind how people understand processes and systems, i.e. when to be explicit and when to avoid patronizing those on the other end of your comms.