[Edu-sig] Python Pedagogy

[Arthur]

kirby urner wrote:

>> 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.

I don't know, sometimes I think that Terrence and Philip better 
describes us as a duo then Itchy and Scratchy.

a) I am not talking about English grammar.  I am talking about a 
connection to the "language center"  - in the what makes humans humans 
sort of way - and the way that something like Python can be connect to 
that center, as language.  But having its own grammar - Dijkstra says 
that the search for the natural language programming language is another 
exploration to pursue for those who like dead-ends, and I believe him - 
, and connected to English in particular only to the extent it needs to 
be connected to something that is already language.

b) I have done some J and it is hard to think of  a programming language 
more abstracted away from natural language, i.e. less readable, and 
since I am talking about leveraging the existing strengths of an actual 
programming language - in this case Python -  not sure how it comes up 
as in "yeah J as well".

Whatever.

Art