Teaching python (programming) to children

[Paul Rubin]

"Arthur Siegel" <ajs at ix.netcom.com> writes:
> That's great for the folks who don't happen to think Piaget is 
> at some level horseshit.  Happily, a programming language
> need not take a position - unless it for some reason chooses to.

Piaget's work is considered mainstream and valid these days.  I
suppose there are people who think it's horseshit, but there are also
some who think the earth is flat.

> My deepest objection - and why I'm consistently nasty when 
> getting near this subject - is that it always seems to be the tool in play 
> < LOGO/MindStorm/Alice, etc and etc> and its creators/advocates 
> that are hogging center stage. And off in the corner somewhere is
> the happy student,  and somewhere backstage, a subject matter.

I don't think Papert had any particular agenda to use Logo.  Logo was
just a vehicle that he had available.  He could just as happily have
used something else if he had it.