[Edu-sig] Another loop around

[Arthur]

> but I'm looping - again.

Still looping.

But that's probably because it's hard for me to understand how I've come to
live on my own planet.

For the largest majority of students - it seems clear to me - asking them to
learn to program, in Python or any other language for that matter, would be
the single *hardest* thing they have been asked to do in their academic
careers.

Many students will have graduated from the finest of universities, with
impressive degrees, and have never undertaken anything as challenging.

I have no problem with asking them, nonetheless, to do so.

But I just can't, for the life of me, understand how we can do so without
due emphasis on the effort expected, and the challenges involved. 

If we are concerned more about the preparation of students for the task,
than our zeal for the advocacy of Python, we would take the word "Easy"
absolutely off the table.

Art