[Edu-sig] Python Pedagogy

[Arthur]

kirby urner wrote:

>
> 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).

Yes, if the motivation is lacking....

Anybody writing anything worth reading needs to assume an interested reader.

I don't really believe much in Programming for the Uninterested, or 
Geometry for the Uninterested- which has always  been one of my problems 
with Computer Programming for Everyone.  I'd rather find effective ways 
to teach the interested, than turn somersaults to interest the 
uninterested. And CP4E could be interpreted as the commitment to these 
somersaults.  Presumably those not interested in geometry or programming 
are interested in something else - maybe even something more interesting 
than either.  Those not interested in anything are the domain of social 
workers and psychiatrists, not educators.

I personally find projective geometry (it is there even during power 
outages ;) ) more interesting than programming , and actually more 
essential to an understanding of what makes "modern" thinking modern..  
I think Bucky might even agree.  But I have also found that having the 
ability to program as part of my arsenal has been essential in allowing 
me to explore the geometry.  It is second best to the kind of 
imagination that might allow one to *see* without having to see.  
Lacking that level of imagination, I need to see in a more literal 
sense, to see. Nobody had really created a tool to allow me to see what 
I needed to see.  So I did.

See?

Art

> Kirby
>
>