Deal with the real issue

You know Jane is right. You need to deal with this now before the semester gets any farther along. You're suddenly really glad that you're dating Jane and this time it's not because of what a hot piece of ass she is.

"Ok, you're right. It's just that I've been at this for days straight and I'm just not getting anywhere on even the simplest assignment. My brain just does not get programming," you sigh, feeling defeated.

"Can I check out some of your assignments?" she asks.

"Really? I thought you don't have to take CS101 as a biology major. Is it part of the dance curriculum now?"

She wrinkles up her nose and punches you playfully in the shoulder. "Jeez. Just cause I'm a girl, there's no way I could possibly help out with complex stuff like computer programming, right?" Before you have a chance to put together a thought, Jane continues, "I took a Python class in high school, so I've done some of this stuff before. I haven't ever looked at Java, but how different can it be, right?"

Of course you don't know either Java or Python, so you have no idea if they're different or not. You honestly have no clue why different programming languages even exist. You watch Jane as she pages through your assignments, screwing up her face in concentration. After a minute or two she gives a little "hmph" and hands the assignments back to you.

"Well," she says throwing her hands up, "I'm not sure I understand it either. It's all really theoretical. The stuff we did in high school was all pretty practical you know? Like read keyboard input to make a selection from a list of items."

Damn. You almost had your hopes up that Jane might be able to see what it was that you were missing. Maybe you can just keep dropping this course every semester until you finally figure it out.

"Wait!" she exclaims happily. "I've got a great idea." She sits up across from you and puts her hands on top of yours. "You don't get this stuff because it's too theoretical."

"Umm, well, yeah, I thought we'd cleared that part up," you stammer stupidly.

She slaps you on the arm lightly, "I mean you need to do something practical. Get your feet wet. Get comfortable with programming something that makes sense first and then you can move onto your assignments."

"So you want to give me more homework?" you sigh.

"Well yeah, but something practical, you know?" she looks up at the ceiling, biting her finger while she lets her mind wander around the problem. "I've got it!"