[Edu-sig] Python Pedagogy

[kirby urner]

> It seems to me that efforts around education that are  indigenous to
> Python and its community will almost necessarily be leveraging these
> qualities and thinking about words and about language more than about
> mouse clicks.

This is also true of the J community, which very explicitly ties to
English grammar in its pedagogy -- way more so than Python does.

> Little mystery, little magic, no search for the Grand Unified Cognitive
> Theory  that will catalyze the computer generated educational Renaissance

Right.  We want strong metaphors that sustain us in our thinking,
nothing so grandiose and pretentious as a Grand Theory of Everything.
And when another language comes along, be ready to drop these
metaphors in favor of new ones.

> My preference - Let the geniuses work off-site and report in from time
> to time, if they must..
>

Not my preference.  Geniuses in isolation, without reality checks,
tend to produce inferior work.  They get too caught up in a personal
namespace, and spend the rest of their lives being annoying, trying to
get us all to learn some quirky new way of talking.

> We are the sub-geniuses.
>

You may have noticed my allusion to subgenius in my Bob example.  I'm
playing of the Pythonic tradition of alluding to Monty Python, by
bringing in another source of allusions some of us might use to
lighten up our tutorials.  Hackers, meet slackers, slackers, hackers.

> And what I think works, for the liberal artists, is the exegesis of text.
>

Yes, liberal arts majors like to say "exigesis" a lot.  And don't
forget "hermeneutics".

> My early effort is here:
>
> http://pygeo.sourceforge.net/docs/codeanatomy.html
>
> Art

I read some of it.  I'm glad you've committed to thoroughly explaining
the code in prose -- too many hackers consider that inessential window
dressing.

In terms of motivating readers, I assume the context is one of already
appreciating what PyGeo might do in the knowledge domain of geometry,
especially projective geometry.  If the motivation is lacking, then it
becomes just another intimidating bureaucracy (just as a lot of
liberal arts types see computer science as a whole).

Kirby