On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 11:45 PM, Devon McCormick <[email protected]> wrote:
> 10. Maybe 6th grade or so?
I don't really like this answer (though it might be valid). But I
think maybe the question is wrong, also.
In fact, I think that J should not be taught in isolation. The
important thing is the subject matter being taught, and J is useful
only as a part of teaching other topics. (Which means writing material
aimed at satisfying teacher's needs - and putting up with teachers who
reject it for arbitrary reasons. And also, building on successes.)
Probably the most important things to teach at a grade school level
are things like study skills and the scientific method ("trust but
verify (where possible)"). There's a lot of crud that gets presented
in schools and to be successful the student has to learn how to find
the good stuff (which might be good material or might be contexts
where the material can be beneficial, or whatever else...).
Or, put differently: no subject is interesting by itself. It's the
teacher that makes the class, or the student. Standards and even
things like J are just tools that can be useful in drawing
connections.
It's very tempting to say "just give them J and things will be
better", but that's about as true of J as it is of a pencil or a piece
of paper. It's what gets done with it that matters.
But it's so easy to ask the wrong questions and takes time and effort
to create useful and interesting presentations of ideas.
--
Raul
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
