[Python-ideas] Better error messages [was: (no subject)]

[Nick Coghlan]

On 5 December 2016 at 12:35, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 5, 2016 at 12:40 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull
> <turnbull.stephen.fw at u.tsukuba.ac.jp> wrote:
>> I don't know where you live, but in both of my countries there is a
>> teacher's union to ensure that nobody without an Ed degree gets near a
>> classroom.  More precisely, volunteers under the supervision of
>> somebody with professional teaching credentials, yes, day job, not in
>> this century.  And "teaching credentials" == degree from a state-
>> certified 4-year Ed program, not something you can get at a community
>> college in an adult ed program.
>
> Sadly, that's probably true here in Australia too, but I don't know
> for sure. I have no specific qualifications, but I teach online; it's
> high time the unions got broken IMO... but that's outside the scope of
> this. If it takes a credentialed teacher to get a job in a school, so
> be it - but at least make sure it's someone who knows how to interpret
> the error messages, so that any student who runs into trouble can ask
> the prof.

Graduate diplomas in Education in Australia are one- or two-year
certificate programs, and some state level industry-to-education
programs aim to get folks into the classroom early by offering
pre-approvals for teaching subjects specifically related to their area
of expertise.

However, the main problem isn't the credentials, and it's definitely
not unions, it's the fact that professional software developers have a
lot of options open to them both locally and globally, and "empower
the next generation to be the managers of digital systems rather than
their servants" has a lot of downsides compared to the alternatives
(most notably: you'll get paid a lot more in industry than you will as
a teacher, so opting for teaching as a change in career direction here
will necessarily be a lifestyle choice based on the non-monetary
factors. That's not going to change as long as people assume that
teaching is easy and/or not important).

That means that we're not at a point in history where we can assume
that teachers are going to be more computationally literate than their
students - instead, we need to assume that many of the teachers
involved will themselves be new to the concepts being taught and work
on empowering them *anyway*.

I just don't personally think that's feasible on a volunteer basis -
you need professional service providers that are familiar not only
with the specific concepts and technologies being taught, but also
with the bureaucratic context that the particular schools and teachers
they serve have to work within.

Regards,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia