[Edu-sig] Python Pedagogy ( re __ribs__ )

[kirby urner]

I don't know if I'm the first to think of this, but there's some
obvious imagery to employ when teaching about the built-in
overloadable Python methods, as a bridge to classes in general:  they
look like ribs.

Think of a Snake:

class Snake:
  __rib__
  __rib__
  __rib__
  __rib__
  __rib__
  __rib__

But the connotations run deeper.  The ribs join to a backbone, which
is where a lot of low level reflexes get wired, which is what built-in
methods do (react as callables).  So we're really building up this
class/creature metaphor at the "ascii art" level, as well as
conceptually:  a strong mnemonic, a cornucopia of relevant
associations.

Finally, there's a move characteristic of the Bucky-informed brands:
we associate ribs with eaves (pun), the idea of a ceiling:  on a boat
flipped over.  Boats are the original hulls (of sea peoples anyway),
but brought up on land, and flipped over, they become houses.[1]

You may recall "the home" (as a paradigm class) is a another core
feature of my emerging Pythonic pedagogy -- except we'll branching out
into DwellingMachines (maybe as a subclass of a common ancestor).[2]

Kirby

[1] R. Buckminster Fuller, Tetrascroll:  A Cosmic Fairy Tale

[2]

"""
I think using the home as a paradigm class is propitious, as there's
lots of implied complexity, especially once HVAC and AC/DC become a
focus (lots of APIs).  You have the media room, the pantry, the
scullery -- the whole pattern language of places.  The Sims gives us
visuals.  OO gives us implementations.
"""

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/edu-sig/2006-May/006543.html

[Edu-sig] More OO chatter from the Edubuntu box
kirby urner kirby.urner at gmail.com
Mon May 29 22:32:00 CEST 2006