[Edu-sig] Python in Secondary Schools

[kirby urner]

On 7/17/07, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> On 7/16/07, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Yet I got fan mail as well.
> >
> > I trust others on this list to give Sven the sound sober advice
> > he's looking for.   I specialize in various brands of polemics --
> > not to the exclusion of technical content though.
>
> But do polemics have a place on a list dedicated to promoting *Python*
> in education? The list name is meant to be edu-sig at python.org, not
> mere edu-sig -- it's not about education(al politics) in general.

Understood.

That same posting went to the Math Forum (Sven's email redacted,
but edu-sig is world-readable), where it received some sober replies
(a subscriber in Alaska dove head first into Python).

That's where more hard work of the Math Wars is really going on (I kept
trying to recruit Arthur, we could have used his insightfulness).

So here's this guy in Belgium teaching informatics and math, and
racking his brains for informatics examples that *aren't* at all that
math flavored.  Sounds all too familiar, no?

When I look back from CP4E being a success, I have to ask:  how did
we get here?  Obvious answer:  we didn't simply surrender to champions
of the status quo curricula.  We needed (and presumably got) some new
flavors.

Plus, if history is any guide, new flavors will arise.  The question is not
"will change occur?" but "which changes will the Python community
champion?"

Just OLPC?  But what about the E in CP4E?

I see that E as making OLPC a *subset* (albiet an important one) of
a much bigger effort (one that joins energies with other open source
communities in a positive, constructive way (not:  we are the only best
first language, we will kill you)).

Anyway, for the next weeks, I'll will go back to simply describing how
I teach Python in the field, which is what I did today, and about OSCON,
where CP4E is my topic (and the Ubuntu conference, if there's much
Pythonic and educationally significant that I learn).

And as usual, I'll do more in my blogs than here, to spell it all out in great
detail.

Anyway, let's see what others bring up, in terms of how CP4E became a
reality. I'm not the only talented spin doctor among us.

Kirby

>
> I am seeing signals that there's been too much politics and not enough
> Python or education on this list. While discussion of educational
> politics is a worthy cause, I want to present a strawman that excludes
> its discussion on this list. I have seem more than one mailing list go
> up in flames over education politics -- understandably a touchy issue
> so perhaps best discussed elsewhere. I have also seen lists saved by a
> strict rule forbidding such destructive topics (enforced by a
> moderator reminding posters and readers of this rule when the topic is
> accidentally brought up again).
>
> --
> --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
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