Disputing Dijkstra, and Birthdays in Base 2

Edsger Dijkstra's 1988 paper "On the Cruelty of Really Teaching Computer Science" (in plain text form at https://bit.ly/3b6bFto) is one of the most well-cited papers on computer science (CS) education. A growing body of recent research explores the very topic that Dijkstra tried to warn us away from--how we learn and teach computer science with metaphor. According to Google Scholar, Dijkstra's paper has been cited 571 times. In contrast, the most-cited paper in all of the ACM Digital Library papers related to SIGCSE has 412 citations (see data at https://bit.ly/3bae0Ub). Dijkstra's paper has been cited more than any peer-reviewed CS education research.