[acid_bath]

CS isn't a degree that teaches you how to program. For me it was much more like a discrete mathematics degree. I learned probably hundreds of algorithms (compression, cryptography, 3D rendering, AI), how to analyze and create new algorithms, but not how to program (except in the typical CS101 courses).

It was always assumed that any student could learn the language of their choice from an off-the-shelf book. I myself knew about half a dozen languages and mastered a couple before I graduated, but that was all extra-curricular work. In many ways I'd probably be a better developer if I obtained a Software Engineering degree instead, but CS gave me the foundation to tackle the interesting computational problems.

The professors knew they would be much more valuable explaining how RSA worked than how to debug a syntax error or learn the language of the month.

[amichail]

Programming requires a lot more than learning the syntax and semantics of a programming language.

Most CS profs don't teach programming because they don't have anything interesting to say and would rather teach something else. They are not programmers.

[Locke1689]

Most CS profs don't teach programming because they don't have anything interesting to say and would rather teach something else. They are not programmers.

I feel this is slightly hyperbolic. CS often isn't a productless field, even in academia. While many fields in CS can get away with simply publishing algorithms and other codeless papers there are many subsections where implementation is a vital part of the project. For example, the Xen project was originally an open source academic project.

I think the biggest problem in academia is the tight schedule. Unfortunately, many of the problems you encounter in industry take too long to be properly implemented in the structure of a semester course. For example, long-term maintenance and technical documentation are at the core of any significant software project but by the time most of that stuff would come up the semester is already over.