For reasons I won't bore you with, my principal and dept chair called a meeting with me regarding my use of Python in math classes. Bottom line - a positive dialog. My principal asked, "What is Python?" I gave him as good an answer as I could at that moment. Later, after some reflection, this is the answer I wish I could have given. However, it is the answer that I just emailed to him. : ) I hope further positive dialog results from this.
'what is Python?' Python is a vehicle for computational thinking. The point isn't Python or any particular language. The point is computational thinking. My point isn't just programming or using Python as a 'tool'. There's something else. It might be called 'functional analysis'. This is what computational thinking is all about. There's a whole lot of good educational ground getting addressed there, not just 'mathematical'. Being able to articulate a mathematical concept in the terms of a sequence of computations is, ironically, what the kids are trying to get at themselves. They want to be told what to 'do'. Well, that's precisely what a computational language lets you say. 'Literacy' is about language, and both mathematical and technological literacy is involved in the exercise of computational reasoning. That's what I'm trying to get at. There's a kind of coding known as 'pseudo-coding'. It's just a way of organizing ideas. It isn't traditional algebra, it isn't Java, it isn't C++ ... it isn't any particular language. It's basically traditional algebra ++. : ) I'm quite serious about this. It is 21st century algebra. Python has often been described as 'pseudo-code that runs'. I find that significant for a whole lot of educational reasons. - Michel
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