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Teaching python (programming) to children

Arthur Siegel ajs at ix.netcom.com
Wed Nov 7 21:04:12 EST 2001 
Jeff Shannon writes -

>Except that, the whole idea of CP4E and teaching programming languages to
all
>(or most) schoolchildren, is that most of these students will *never*
become
>programmers.  They will do other things, but will benefit from having some
idea
>of how to program a computer.  Programmers will still need to know the
details
>of how a computer works, but they'll pick that up later on (as they learn
other
>languages, and advanced data structures, and so on).

>But to the person who's just trying to write a script to, say, generate a
>catalog of all the mp3 ...

The problem with this slant is that there is little justification to bring
the
necessary resources to bear for "teaching programming languages to all
(or most) schoolchildren" if the end result is scripts cataloging mp3s.

If the end result is a deeper appreciation of math concepts, scientific
concepts,
etc.  - much educational productivity can be leveraged,  given students
with just some fundamentals under their belt.  But I think we are missing
the
CP4E boat when we focus on one hand on training computer scientists
starting at age 12, or, on the other, believing that the educational value
of
the context of the programming-related curriculum is not of the essence.

Art
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