Teaching python (programming) to children

[Sheila King]

On Sat, 10 Nov 2001 12:54:09 -0500, "Arthur Siegel" <ajs at ix.netcom.com>
wrote in comp.lang.python in article
<mailman.1005415033.16598.python-list at python.org>:

:Sheila writes - 
:>If you were in the classroom working with
:>students, this wouldn't be important at all.
:
:Not sure what you are saying.

I'm saying, that in the classroom, all the arguing about current fad
theories is a distant clamoring, that the classroom practitioner need
not deal with on a daily basis.

:According to Paul, Piaget (and anything that invokes 
:the name) is a done deal.

And Paul is the one who decides? I did have to study Piaget, Dewey and
others for my credentialing courses (about 20 years ago), but the most I
could tell you about Piaget today, is that he argued that students
needed to have a concrete understanding of something before they could
proceed to an abstract understanding. As for the high school teachers I
worked with recently, I'd be surprised if even half of them could tell
you that much. In all the time I worked at the high school, I can't
remember Piaget ever coming up in discussion in the teacher's lounge, or
in one of our Math Department or Business & Technology Department or
Language Department meetings (I was members of all three departments at
various times), nor at the general faculty meetings. Maybe it did come
up, but apparently not often, nor was the mention particularly memorable
nor important, as I don't recall it at all.

:But, perhaps its more that the folks who see it otherwise 
:just got exhausted counter-arguing.

To be honest, I haven't been following this whole thread. I've only read
a select few messages. But I went back and read yours and Paul's after
this post, and I'm not sure as to what the point is that is being argued
and counter-argued.

:Maybe teachers need to be exposed to some counter din.
:
:I volunteer.

If you feel you have a good point about curriculum and/or teaching
methods, put your point out there and be vocal about it. Give the
teachers access to your ideas, and the reasons why you promote it. Then
allow them to decide whether to adopt it or not.

I think that change in the curriculum should be initiated by those who
are the daily practitioners of it. Not by those sitting in
administrative offices. I was fortunate to work in a school, where at
least this much was under my control. I was allowed to choose my own
textbooks, my own curriculum, etc... That part of the job I found very
appealing. Where I worked, it was usually the "good" teachers who would
become aware of new ideas, and present them to their department. If
anything changed, it was as a result of this type of introduction of new
methods and curriculum from those good teachers. And when the
administration tried to impose top-down ideas upon us, that we did not
agree with, we fought them on those ideas, and presented our opinions
and evidence as to why we did not want to go along with it.

--
Sheila King
http://www.thinkspot.net/sheila/
http://www.k12groups.org/