New Python implementation

[Abdur-Rahmaan Janhangeer]

Greetings list,

> Even if Python is my choice language for personal projects, I am not
certain it
is the right language to use in a classroom context.

This sums the view of most teachers in my country. In here for A level
at Cambridge for Computer Studies you can choose either Java, or VB or
Python

The teachers' logic seems to tell them that VB is the simplest of all and
more fitted for students. Since we organise the local Python usergroup
<https://www.pymug.com>,
we have been encouraging the adoption of Python. This happens from
experience when teachers think for students, they think student will think
like that etc

The way schools examinations are set up, learning  programming is a bore.
Programming requires experimentation and projects. The students must be
permitted to explore the wide deep sea that is Python. On one of my projects
on Github, i have a toy language, someone from Slovakia (14 years old)
built
an IDE for it, what was needed was only guidance where he was stuck.

The hurdle with Python if any is the setting up and getting the command
'python'
to appear in the terminal, which is very easy to get up and running
nowadays.

When i was in high school, i did not take Computer Studies, but was
learning programming
on my own, including Python. The irony is that my friends who were learning
Python
got disgusted with it. Loops and functions turned out to be hard for them.
That's because
learning for the exam makes you learn the language close to theory. Some
commandline
stuffs and some numbers stuffs surely is not exiting. Mastery comes with
projects, exciting ones.
Then whatever the syllabus requires becomes easy. It's a means to an end
rather than the end
in itself.

The teachers' reaction is a reaction to the design of the syllabus. The
folks seem to think that let's
water it down to a very theoretical approach, strike out practise, strike
out the fun out of it and
sure the students will find it easier. Since effort is disliked by humans,
less effort in learning programming
will make students happy.

Then, if it was no Python at that time, it might be no Python for life.
With that mindset ongoing,
those students think they know Python, they studied it, but they missed the
whole thing. Forest,
trees and leaves. They know only the color of the sign board leading to the
place.

Kind Regards,

Abdur-Rahmaan Janhangeer
about <https://compileralchemy.github.io/> | blog
<https://www.pythonkitchen.com>
github <https://github.com/Abdur-RahmaanJ>
Mauritius