Great links, Kirby,
Love reading the stories of how the young programmers got their start on a
website just to build worlds for their virtual pets.
And the comment that programming is like solving a puzzle, and the great
feeling you get when you solve a problem.
Thanks,
Peter
On Wed, Aug 10, 2016 at 9:00 AM, <edu-sig-request(a)python.org> wrote:
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> 1. Re: mixed messages about math... (kirby urner)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2016 13:46:00 -0700
> From: kirby urner <kirby.urner(a)gmail.com>
> To: "edu-sig(a)python.org" <edu-sig(a)python.org>
> Subject: Re: [Edu-sig] mixed messages about math...
> Message-ID:
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>
> On Fri, Aug 5, 2016 at 2:10 PM, kirby urner <kirby.urner(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > I was just drafting another blog post for CERM Academy,
> > which manages streams of thought pieces going out to
> > subscribers, then warehoused in a WordPress site. [1]
> >
> >
> Update Aug 9:
>
> Here's a link to the article I ended up publishing, not through
> CERM as it turns out (Greg thought it maybe too specialized
> to a specific readership) but in a more "find its own way"
> environment:
>
> https://twitter.com/4DsolutionsPDX/status/762797526802059264
>
> (a tweet that goes to my essay 'The Plight of High School
> Math Teachers', if curious).
>
> << SNIP >>
>
> [1] http://cermacademy.com/
>
> Down at the moment, Greg expects it up and running in 24 hours.
>
> The code school featured by Greg's daughter Margaux for
> WorkingIT.com held it's Monday Night Flying Circus again
> last night:
>
> http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2016/08/at-circus.html
>
> [
>
> Here are some thumbnail profiles of <guild /> personnel, by
> Margaux, Greg's daughter:
>
> http://workingit.com/blog/category/thought-leadership/
>
> Introduces the director and her two daughters, a few years
> older than Margaux
>
> ]
>
> I like that we're eclectic, devoting whole evenings to JavaScript
> as much as Python. It's the synergies in this ecosystem that
> give us leverage, whereas "Python in a bottle" (no discussion
> of context) is too "night in a museum" right?
>
> Pays to "play well with others" (for real).
>
> If in Portland, swing by...
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirbyurner/albums/72157664766721643
> (2626 SW Corbett)
>
> and also visit Portland Python User Group @ Urban Airship,
> interesting building in SW Portland:
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirbyurner/albums/72157655578412223
>
> (ironically none of the buildings depicted, but still good for context)
>
> Kirby
>
I was just drafting another blog post for CERM Academy,
which manages streams of thought pieces going out to
subscribers, then warehoused in a WordPress site. [1]
As a former high school math teacher, my question is
about the likely fate of that profession, in the light of two
messages coming loud and strong from the adult world:
1) the US President, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and
many others, including hip hop stars, say "learning to code"
is a great door opener, a ticket to the 21st Century
and
2) in order to respond to this demand, we're going to
need a new army of CS teachers, very much in short
supply at the moment. Scientific American has another
article on that theme in this August's issue. [2]
What's being said, then, is:
3) whatever this "learning to code" thing is, it cannot be
math, as we presently do have a lot of math teachers,
eager to innovate, but only a few "coding teachers" ergo
"CS is not Math".
That's quite a devastating message to be broadcasting.
Math already has a relevance problem, with books like
'The Math Myth' chipping away at its lifeblood, its
required status.
"So what if we swapped out math for CS?" is the question
that inevitably arises, once we tell the world they're
really different. What if the school can't produce?
"Stay home and learn"? Who gets to do that? That's
an interesting question.
Before we go too far down this road however, it may
pay to look ahead. Won't those hypothetical new
coding classes include stuff about vectors and spatial
geometry? Luciano's OSCON talk was a lot about
writing a vector class in fluent Python. Isn't that what
CAD is all about? Look at Pi3D.
Algorithms for finding primes.... Understanding RSA
entails learning about Euler's Theorem, a generalization
of Fermat's Little, and so on.
Is 'The Art of Computer Programming' not-mathematical
simply by virtue of being only semi-numerical?
In saying all these actually relevant topics belong to this
new discipline, and that math teachers are not qualified
to teach it, is stripping away their last shred of credibility.
The real weak link in this chain is not the math teachers,
but the fact that they're ball and chained to computer
illiterate textbooks. In the US, they're commanded to
toe the line and teach to the tests. But the tests have
no use for hexadecimals (Common Core is base 10 only).
Finally, right when functions become "top level citizens",
(hooray) it turns out math teachers no longer get to
teach exactly what that means, as the examples are all
in JavaScript or other "not math" languages.
The real message we're sending to is that mathematics
involves calculation, because in math class we use
calculators and don't code, whereas computer science
involves computation.
Math is for calculator people. Computer science is for
computer people. It's TI versus Pi.
We seem prepared to move ahead on such thin ice, akin to
saying data science is not really math, not statistics, because
there's coding involved.
Somehow the mere act of coding marks a mythical boundary,
around which we're happy to design our civilization?
Anyway, subscribers here are already veterans of such
discussions. I ruminate more in this recent blog post:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2016/08/accelerated-learning.html
Kirby
[1] http://cermacademy.com/
[2] https://flic.kr/p/KCTvvU
