Hi,
On Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 8:15 PM Abdur-Rahmaan Janhangeer <arj.pyt...@gmail.com> wrote: > Greetings list, > > > Even if Python is my choice language for personal projects, I am not > certain it > is the right language to use in a classroom context. > > This sums the view of most teachers in my country. In here for A level > at Cambridge for Computer Studies you can choose either Java, or VB or > Python > > The teachers' logic seems to tell them that VB is the simplest of all and > more fitted for students. Since we organise the local Python usergroup > <https://www.pymug.com>, > we have been encouraging the adoption of Python. This happens from > experience when teachers think for students, they think student will think > like that etc > How old are the teachers? And is it for school or university? Thank you. > The way schools examinations are set up, learning programming is a bore. > Programming requires experimentation and projects. The students must be > permitted to explore the wide deep sea that is Python. On one of my > projects > on Github, i have a toy language, someone from Slovakia (14 years old) > built > an IDE for it, what was needed was only guidance where he was stuck. > > The hurdle with Python if any is the setting up and getting the command > 'python' > to appear in the terminal, which is very easy to get up and running > nowadays. > > When i was in high school, i did not take Computer Studies, but was > learning programming > on my own, including Python. The irony is that my friends who were learning > Python > got disgusted with it. Loops and functions turned out to be hard for them. > That's because > learning for the exam makes you learn the language close to theory. Some > commandline > stuffs and some numbers stuffs surely is not exiting. Mastery comes with > projects, exciting ones. > Then whatever the syllabus requires becomes easy. It's a means to an end > rather than the end > in itself. > > The teachers' reaction is a reaction to the design of the syllabus. The > folks seem to think that let's > water it down to a very theoretical approach, strike out practise, strike > out the fun out of it and > sure the students will find it easier. Since effort is disliked by humans, > less effort in learning programming > will make students happy. > > Then, if it was no Python at that time, it might be no Python for life. > With that mindset ongoing, > those students think they know Python, they studied it, but they missed the > whole thing. Forest, > trees and leaves. They know only the color of the sign board leading to the > place. > > Kind Regards, > > Abdur-Rahmaan Janhangeer > about <https://compileralchemy.github.io/> | blog > <https://www.pythonkitchen.com> > github <https://github.com/Abdur-RahmaanJ> > Mauritius > -- > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list > -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
