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I really want to get discussion going around this topic. There have been several opportunities recently to advance Python in education, but distribution difficulties of the software are a big impediment.

What are the distribution difficulties that cause the impediment?

There are also threats. I just received from my supervisor a sample competency list for a new National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) exam in Computer Programming. ...

Who uses the NOCTI? Is it stodgy companies who are looking for VB programmers, or companies the NOCTI sells its services to?

Python is not on the list. Neither is Java, and that will never stand, so there might be an opportunity here to do some more education around the merits of Python.

Thanks!

I think that computers and programming are getting to a critical mass where the is division between computer science and CP4E. I think that computer programming should be a modern skill that every student learns, like reading, writing, arithmetic, art, music, and sports. Every student should have the ability to express themselves in all these media because these media will be a part of there lives. Not everyone will make a vocation of computer science or other expressive media but they will use all these media in whatever vocation they choose. To me if NOCTI has 'write a program in Python' or not, doesn't matter as much as getting more (every) student exposed to programming. So tell me more about the distribution problems. Thanks, Jeff Sandys