[Edu-sig] Oh, the TEACHERS!

[Kevin Driscoll]

> I'm sick of these "teachers" you keep talking about.  They should all
> just go away, and let the real programmers have their jobs.  Don't
> even *think* about teaching Python if you haven't coded in it
> professionally and made real money off it.  That's closer to my
> attitude than "oh, the teachers are upset, we should care."


In my coding days, I rarely used Python but I use it almost
exclusively in teaching (9-12th grade, high school.)

I take issue with the hyperbole above but want to steer away from the
former thread title.

Great developers are not by nature great teachers.  Likewise, great
teachers may not be great developers.  Rather than choosing the
either-or proposition, the two ought to work together.

I have had great success bringing professionals into my classroom to
be guest judges for programming competitions or to present a project
with which they are engaged with in the workplace.  This complementary
system helps students see the connection between their schoolwork and
the "real world" very concretely.

The poison leaks not from any individuals but rather from the schism
between academia and the rest of the programming world.

Kevin