>>Programming won't be a 'professional' occupation until such time as it can be removed from the realm of art and placed into the realm of science.
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>Medicine is an "art" as well as a science. Things like choosing the right medication may be science in that certian antibiotics will only work against certian bacteria. It's an art in the sense that choosing a once-a-day dose of a somewhat less effective medicine may work better for a certian patient than a multi-dose medicine that the patient will forget to take.
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>Programming is the same. Do you always write for mazimum efficiency? Do you sometimes write for readability, or because you are more comfortable doing things the tried-and-true (for you) way?

The 'Medicine is art' analogy doesn't doesn't hold for neither medicine nor programming because:
1) There are no universially recognized and certified schools of programming, similar to medical schools. Most 2 and 4 years schools just crank out coders.
2) No standardized tests of programming skills, at the federal or state level, nor practicums which force applicants to demonstrate sufficient skill levels. Having a federal level certification would prevent incompetents from jumping to other states.
3) The techniques of medical treatment are well defined and constrained, those of programming are not. (You can't suiture just any ole' way. Neither can you apply plasters made from fungi you grew in your office basement. Things are well standardized and uniform from doctor to doctor.)
4) Illnesses have been well cataloged and indicated, but needs for software solutions have not, which has generated a lot of useless software.
5) Diagnostics is also standardized. Not so with application failures.
6) Tools and the techniques of their use are standardized, documented and certified. Software tools come and go faster than snake oil remedies, leaving users with that 'sick' feeling.

It is precisely because folks with informal or no training what so ever can begin programming for Joe Smallbusiness, some after one perusal of "The Idiot's Guide to BASIC".

I was one of the first to teach programming at the HS level in the late 70's, and taught it at the College level in the 80's. My son graduated in Math five years ago but decided to program (he saw how much fun I was having :) and visited several colleges and Universities (UNL amung them). In the past 20-25 years little has changed.