Python in High School

[Basilisk96]

On Apr 1, 12:27 pm, sprad <jsp... at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm a high school computer teacher, and I'm starting a series of
> programming courses next year (disguised as "game development" classes
> to capture more interest). The first year will be a gentle
> introduction to programming, leading to two more years of advanced
> topics.
>
> I was initially thinking about doing the first year in Flash/
> ActionScript, and the later years in Java. My reasoning is that Flash
> has the advantage of giving a quick payoff to keep the students
> interested while I sneak in some OOP concepts through ActionScript.
> Once they've gotten a decent grounding there, they move on to Java for
> some more heavy-duty programming.
>
> I've never used Python, but I keep hearing enough good stuff about it
> to make me curious.
>
> So -- would Python be a good fit for these classes? Could it equal
> Java as the later heavy-duty language? Does it have enough quickly-
> accessible sparklies to unseat Flash?
>
> I want to believe. Evangelize away.

I highly recommend that you read the introduction chapters in two of
the books on this site: http://www.greenteapress.com/

The first book is called "How To Think Like a Computer Scientist:
Learning with Python".
The second book is a follow-up edition to that one, and is called "How
To Think Like a (Python) Programmer".

All of the books there are written by school teachers, so I think you
will find valuable insight there. The same books also have a Java and
a C++ flavor.  All are free downloads.

My very first serious look into Python came from this series, and I
thoroughly enjoyed learning the basics. I think the text was so
successful for me because the content is well-connected.

As far as which language to choose - well, you can make the choice
yourself after reading at least the introductions of all the books. If
you do decide on Python, there is a library called "pygame" that may
achieve your visual game programming goals.

Enjoy!
-Basilisk96