[Edu-sig] Edu-sig Digest, Vol 22, Issue 26

[Guido van Rossum]

On 6/27/05, Arthur <ajsiegel at optonline.net> wrote:
> Kirby writes -
> 
> >You've taken aim at bloated, graphics-intensive environments (like Alice)
> >that insulate students from learning any real programming, giving them
> >instead some dumbed down command set and a lot of gee whiz razzle-dazzle.
> >No real maturity develops.
> 
> Yes and no, in terms of what motivates my hysterias.
> 
> My objection to projects like Alice is nothing more specific, really, than
> my subjective sense of where it is coming from, what motivates it, and its
> level of sincerity and integrity.
> 
> It is difficult both to defend such subjective assessments, and to back away
> from them.
> 
> When the stakes are as I imagine them to be - that is. There are plenty of
> areas in which I am willing to be kind. Or at least silent.  This area  -
> education, technology, and children - ain't one of them.

I have second thoughts about Alice too (and not just because Pausch
apparently rewrote it in Java :-).

See for yourself about Pausch's IMO cocky, self-serving attitude:

    http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/interviews/v6i20_pausch.html

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)