[Edu-sig] quantum instance

Kirby Urner urnerk at qwest.net
Sun Sep 18 22:55:13 CEST 2005


> But I do I think we have no choice but to teach in a way that let's our
> students know there are competing versions in play.  I think *that* with a
> very high level of confidence.
> 
> Art

Different teachers will inevitably bring their own "spin" to their teaching.

I can well imagine a class in which Python is brought up primarily to talk
about its deficiencies and inferior qualities e.g. a presentation by some
Scheme guy, pissed that the Python community is making inroads in K-12 and
anxious to head that off.

The background of the teacher matters.  John Zelle has taught Java a lot,
and brings that experience to bear.  At OSCON, I attended a talk on Ruby
geared especially to Java programmers, e.g. "this is how you're used to
doing it in Java, here's how you might do the same thing in Ruby" (followed
by a much shorter piece of code).

I don't think it's the obligation of a teacher to accommodate the spins and
slants of every other teacher, e.g. I'm happy to teach about the property
feature without a hint of your dark warnings about "information hiding" and
the like.  Let Arthur handle Arthur's spin.  Let students drift from one
teacher to another, building up their own biases and spins.

I think we've already agreed it comes down to judgment.  And when it comes
to judgments, we may differ.  That in itself gives neither of us the right
to complain that the other is "discounting" or "ignoring" the other.  The
right to go with one's own sense of right and wrong is a feature, not a bug.
I see no reason to complain if you teach a different version of Python from
mine.
 
Kirby




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