Just received this email from a former student earlier this week, and it really made my day. It's an excellent falsification of an argument I was being given last year that Python in math classes MIGHT be OK for really motivated math students likely to major in some STEM discipline but that it would be tangential otherwise. HA! No so! This girl was an artist, a good student, but definitely not going to be a math major. However, having learned some Python in her math class was a plus for her in her college animation course!<br>
<br>Since Python is a general purpose language, it opens up all kinds of other doors, not just mathematical ones.<br><br>And let's be realistic - is she ever going to have to remember or use any of the things we studied in FST? I doubt it. More than likely the most useful thing she got from that course was how to think in Python.<br>
<br>- Michel<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br><br><br>Dear Mr Paul,<br><br>I had your FST class last year. I am going to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and guess what, my scripting for Animation course is in PYTHON!! I thought that would be fun for you to hear, and now I have the advantage in the class for already having some experience with it!<br>
Anyway, I hope things are looking up for you and your innovative intentions for upgrading my old high school.<br><br><font color="#888888"><br><br>
</font></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>"Computer science is the new mathematics."<br><br>-- Dr. Christos Papadimitriou<br>