[Edu-sig] Politics and Python in Education (meta on list charter)

[kirby urner]

On 7/21/07, Peter Bowyer <peter at mapledesign.co.uk> wrote:

> In the context of deploying Python as a teaching aid (or the language
> for a Computer Science course)  I don't give a damn about what
> education *should* be.  I want to hear the approaches others are
> finding successful, I want to hear what people are doing/planning to
> do and their ideas.  I don't want a load of theoretical talk - I'll
> join another mailing list for that.

The only problem I see in terms of reducing Kirby's "dominance"
(measured as "relative frequency of posts"?), is I'm one of those
actively teaching Python in a classroom setting.

This idea that I'm just sitting back in an armchair, pontificating
and theorizing, might fit some other subscribers here, but not me.

In Portland, Oregon, we actually teach mathematics using Python.
That's just the reality on the ground.  I use edu-sig to file notes on
how we're doing that, helping to spread competence to other
gnu math teachers out there (a growing army).

http://mybizmo.blogspot.com/2007/07/winding-up.html

I'm also a busy professional, a DBA for a team of eminent heart
surgeons, with clinical data going back to the 1960s (among other
hats that I wear).

Python is not my first computer language.  I've also collaborated
with the late Kenneth Iverson on curriculum writing around the J
language ('Jiving in J').

The late Arthur Siegel was also a contributor to Python's growing
educational toolkit, in the form of Pygeo (which so far drawfs
Crunchy Frog, in terms of scope and ambition http://pygeo.sourceforge.net/ ).

The way I see it, Arthur, a New York financial wizard and latecomer
to programming, earned his street cred the hard way, by really
doing, not just talking about doing.

Kirby