How is that different than computer science? The only people I know that were successful at my unknown state college were people who were geeks and either already knew how to program or took an interest in it outside of class.

If you teach chemistry at community college you'll find that arrow-pushing and teaching reaction mechanisms is discouraged by faculty and resented by students because these things won't be on the test. But arrow pushing is a unifying concept that shows up everywhere; the sooner it is introduced, the better, as a chemist you really need to be familiar with the idea and its implications.

As a c.c student wishing to go further you have two problems: you need to discover the concepts that were not taught because they were "too difficult" and you need to gain familiarity with them, and that is easier with proper instruction,.