[Edu-sig] re: Python in Education

[Arthur_Siegel@rsmi.com]

>So again, I'm doing something non-standard...

Kirby,

Probably what people do appreciate about your efforts, 
and I do sense wide appreciation from the people who
are aware of it, may not be directly related to programming,
math, 3d, etc.  It's really a guerilla teaching style.  It is not -  I
am the teacher who is teaching what I learned, years ago
and far aware. It is  - I am the teacher teaching what I discovered
yesterday, because I love discovery, and what I am really
teaching is most importantly the love of discovery.

You and I agree that Python, math, 3d, etc  provide a fertile
ground for that kind of teaching.

But folks like you will always find the best tools that
happen to be available - and again in the end it doesn't
matter much what they happen to be. 

The only teacher I ever had that had a profound influence
on me was in grade school, and he worked with mimeographed
hand-drawn cartoons, soma blocks, chess sets, etc.

I think most people feel that Kirby can't be scaled or rolled out,
 and therefore of less interest than the question of what might be
the NEXT BIG THING in education.

What I wish and doubt the next big thing in education would
be is more people like Kirby, better integrated into the
school systems that kids like my son attend.

One can dream.

And at least with the internet the Kirbys can scale a bit.

Which is exciting in itself.

In that regard I mention another favorite site of mine: 

http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/home.html

Much of interest to explore and discover.


ART