[Chicago] Python in local school systems?

[Feihong Hsu]

I've been following the Python education thread with some interest. 
I'm not certain about this, but Illinois Math and Science Academy
(IMSA) in Aurora might have a course that uses Python.  I can't find
anything on their webpage, but I know that the staff there are big on
Python since they seem to use Zope for their entire website (and have
for quite some time).

When I attended IMSA in the late nineties, they had programming
courses that taught other languages besides the Advanced Placement
language (Pascal, at the time).  Back then, they offered both C++ and
even Assembly!  It's not hard to imagine that they would offer
something in Python now.

I've heard about Mark Guzdial before.  I think he actually started in
Smalltalk (using Squeak) before going over to Jython.  I can
understand why he doesn't use Jython anymore, but I don't understand
why he didn't just switch to Groovy instead of Java.  I mean Groovy
is actually kinda similar to Smalltalk, and it's still a dynamic
language.  Anyway, it's still a better idea than trying to teach
intro programming using JavaScript like I did.

- Feihong


 
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