The right way and the wrong way for learning a thinking person's craft

I have been teaching computer science to undergraduates for more than ten years. Lately, I have had a sneaking suspicion that I (and the rest of the world) am doing it wrong. One learns to write good software by first writing a lot of bad software. Then, one day, after having written a lot of code, one becomes good enough to write software professionally. For me, I first felt qualified to write software professionally at least one year after graduation. During that year or so I was paid very well to learn how to do it right. I am very grateful to the company that subsidized this learning experience for me but I have a feeling they would have preferred hiring someone ready to make a lasting contribution on or around day one.

Why aren't most freshly minted computer science graduates qualified to write code professionally?
I believe a fundamental problem with the typical undergraduate computer science curriculum is that it breaks its learning units into discrete, relatively non-overlapping units that don't emphasize an integrated, hands-on approach to learning the craft. It drives me crazy when a student asks me about the syntax for creating an interface in some programming language because they have not actually done it since their OOP class. Similarly, I feel like I haven't done my job well when they ask me how to spawn a thread because they haven't done so since their operating systems class.

Writing software is a craft. One definition of craftsman is "one that learns by doing". Cabinet makers do not take separate courses on framing, drawer construction, and finishing and then wait until they leave cabinet making school to build their first cabinet. They learn those skills by spending several hours each day practicing them. With all their other responsibilities, I would guess that the typical undergraduate computer science student does not spend several hours a day, every day, writing code. They don't, but they should. We should expect them to do that. We should set up an environment where they can do that.

Should software development be taught like a trade like cabinet making or plumbing?
An argument can be made that there should be trade schools that teach software development. Perhaps it should not be taught in the same higher education environment that students learn mathematics or biology. There is a growing movement to train software developers through mentoring and on the job training. 8th Light in Chicago is an example of doing this well.

However, writing software is a thinking person's craft. Having been around software developers for more than 15 years I believe that those who receive a liberal arts education are more interesting people. They work better with others. They are better readers, writers, and communicators. They have a distinct advantage in all of the 'soft' people skills that are as important as the 'hard' technical skills. We should not deny computer science students the opportunity to grow in these environments. This is the dilemma- software developers need a mix of a craftsman's education and a traditional college education.

The right way
If I had no restrictions in setting up a new curriculum for computer science students these are some of the things that I would do to mix learning styles:

Students who are interested in computer science will start with the traditional sequence of introductory  courses in their first two years. They will take other courses to meet full time status. In other words, there will not be any difference for freshmen and sophomores studying computer science in this new environment than in a traditional environment.

Then, after a student has committed to studying computer science, they would transition to a mix of a traditional and a craftsman's learning environment during their final two years. Students will spend at least four hours a day, five days a week, for at least the last two years of a four year education working:

• with a mentor
• in a lab on campus dedicated to the craft
• with changing team members 
• on different projects both large and small
• during the summer (if not interning for a company)

During this mixed time, students will take one or two non-computer science classes in their off hours. Students in the program will be assessed for roughly the same knowledge as in a traditional computer science environment. In other words, they will need to know the same information about networks, operating systems, databases, etc. as a traditional CS student taking individual courses on these topics. However, they will have to learn about them through the projects they are working on.

Projects
A college would have to set up an entity to take on projects for the community, local schools, for departments and programs within the college, for churches, for local government bodies. This would be the epitome of technology-based service learning. One side effect is that it might attract more women to CS. Women are generally attracted to solving real world problems whereas the men are interested in technology for technology's sake. Everyone would start out working on someone else's open source project. Eventually, everyone would create several of their own open source projects.

Occasionally, I have excellent students who don't have a lot of interesting work to show potential employers. With this model, upon graduation, every student will have a real portfolio of work to show potential employees and real experience working in a group.