[Edu-sig] is CP4E aiming to be "official" ?

[Kirby Urner]

> Social engineering: Everyone who wants to change the world starts by
> trying to get control of the public schools so as to influence young 
> minds in their direction. I have noticed even on this list many wanting 
> to get Python/whatever into the official curriculum; it seems so much 
> easier to get one small group of government officials to push your agenda 
> than to pursuade parents and teachers. Unfortunately, the public schools 
> then become the battleground of ideologies, in the same way that 
> government-run media becomes the first target of any would-be 
> revolutionary junta. Politics rules the schools, and education suffers.

I'm not sure how exemplary Portland is, but in volunteering to teach Python
at my daughter's school, it's parents and teachers I'm working to persuade,
by earning positive reviews from their children and students.  I'm not so
much focused on government officials in distal or proximal bureaucracies.
I'm where the tire meets the road (one of several) doing Python in the
classroom.  Books like yours will help.  It's not a matter of making it
"official" but of just making it happen (unofficially will do).

> So where do I fit in here? I'm trying to be part of the solution, not part
> of the problem. I don't have grandiose ideas about changing the course of
> world events, but I think each one of us can change the lives of
> individuals around us. I was greatly benefited by mentoring from engineers

> as a teenager. I'm just trying to give back, by trying to give my own 
> children and others the same opportunities that I had. We on this list 
> are mostly self-taught, independent-minded people. We believe that people 
> *can* rise above mindless consumerism, that they can do something 
> significant. I believe that young people (and all people) are capable of 
> doing a lot more with their minds than what they currently do; that's why 
> I believe that they can learn, among other things, programming with 
> Python.
> 
> David H.

Well done and well put.

I've got two new Python + POV-Ray renderings hot off the screen this
morning:
http://www.4dsolutions.net/satacad/pythonicmath/icosa_in_holder.jpg
http://www.4dsolutions.net/satacad/pythonicmath/icosa_no_holder.jpg

I did these under contract.

How to do stuff like this is part of what I teach when I teach Python.

Kirby