On the focus of this list: certainly Python education (even if it does get contentious -- there are strong opinions on all sorts of things). Certainly I am not looking for big large educational politics centered discussions, but I am a bit concerned about the strength of the reaction and going too far.
Politics do influence people's mindsets, and hence what they suggest specifically about teaching Python. People make suggests about teaching Python that I take with more or less of a grain of salt depending on where I judge they are coming from. I would not like to lose the context from which people speak. There is always a matter of degree. Explicitly self-identified influences, with links to a site that would give more information to the interested about the influence certainly sound fine and useful to me. This extends to one-line links to most anything that might be tangentially of interest to our audience, not just politics. Producing a whole page in our list that could better appear on a politics site is completely different and I would prefer not to be skimming over it, trying to find the end of the theme. Andy Vern Ceder wrote: > Guido van Rossum wrote: > >> But do polemics have a place on a list dedicated to promoting *Python* >> in education? The list name is meant to be [email protected], not >> mere edu-sig -- it's not about education(al politics) in general. >> > > +1 > > >> I am seeing signals that there's been too much politics and not enough >> Python or education on this list... >> > > I have had off-list exchanges with people who were reluctant to post to > edu-sig, mainly because they didn't have the time, inclination, or (in > some cases) the fluency in English to become embroiled in political debates. > > If you ask me (and as I recall, nobody did ;-) ) the great thing about > the tutor list is the way they rigorously (and gently) stick to the > topic of helping people learn Python. So, yeah... > > Vern > > -- Andrew N. Harrington Computer Science Department Director of Academic Programs Loyola University Chicago http://www.cs.luc.edu/~anh 512B Lewis Towers (office) Phone: 312-915-7999 Snail mail to Lewis Towers 416 Fax: 312-915-7998 820 North Michigan Avenue [EMAIL PROTECTED] for graduate admin Chicago, Illinois 60611 [EMAIL PROTECTED] for undergrad admin [EMAIL PROTECTED] as professor _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
