[Tutor] Helping with homework --- reasons for sometimes holding back

[Danny Yoo]

> > But if you are doing doing this for homework, please tell us --- we
> > are prohibited from helping much with homework.
>
> Really?  As long as someone's making an attempt to solve the problem,
> instead of just stating the problem and asking for a solution,


Hi Terry,


Questions are perfectly good; I don't have any problems with them at all.
It's the latter case, where a person states a Homework Problem and asks
for the One Right Answer, where we have to handle things delicately.


> I have no qualms about helping with homework.  In my book, "helping with
> homework"  is okay; "doing the homework," not so much.

Sure.  I feel that there's a thin line between helping and hurting: if we
"help" too much, it ends up hurting the learner a lot.  That is, if we
overdo it, we might risk teaching the wrong lesson, that the learner picks
up the habit of coersing the One Right Answer out of a teacher.


This isn't to say that this happens on Python-Tutor, but it's something
that I've seen happen in classrooms, especially in standardized
test-driven curricula.  The book "How Children Fail", by John Holt, talks
a lot about this:

    http://educationreformbooks.net/failure.htm

and it's just something that's in the back of my mind all the time,
because I think Holt's very right.  Perhaps it's just baseless to worry
about it, but it's still a factor that influences me when I help with a
question.


For me, personally, I'll often try to answer in a way that doesn't really
"answer" --- there's often something that the questioner needs to do to
actually get things to work right.  Sometimes I do this on accident, but
usually, it's on purpose.  *grin*

More importantly, I also try to link out to primary and secondary URL
references, so that the person who's asking knows where to find out more
details.  Occasionally I forget about restricting myself because the
problem is so exciting to me, but in general, I do try to hold back a bit.


Anyway, hope that explains my feelings better.  Please feel free to ask
questions on Python-Tutor; we'll be happy to help!