Teaching python (programming) to children

[Michael Hudson]

hungjunglu at yahoo.com (Hung Jung Lu) writes:

[schnipp]
> Or is there a good way of teaching to make it less traumatic for
> beginners to grasp the concepts of dictionary, name spaces, assignment
> by reference?

I suspect the simple measure of not teaching them C first will do for
this one.  I.e. I don't think it the true newbie who hits these
problems, rather someone coming from C.  It's not learning how Python
works that confuses, it's the unlearning of how other languages work
that's hard.

In my opinion, anyway.  I could be wrong.

I do think there are other reasons why Python isn't a perfect teaching
language (eg. getting Python to run fast being a strange and
non-transferable skill), but I doubt this one.

Cheers,
M.

-- 
  ARTHUR:  The ravenours bugblatter beast of Traal ... is it safe?
    FORD:  Oh yes, it's perfectly safe ... it's just us who are in 
           trouble.
                    -- The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Episode 6