Hi Dan -- You ask a lot of good questions.
I don't think it's required that you know Python cold (i.e. really well) before sharing it with your daughter or others. They see you're tackling something and getting better at it bit by bit, like sailing, playing the guitar, and that's inspiring. If she passes you in proficiency and starts showing you stuff, that would be fine too right? [ Have you shown her Vi Hart's work? She's a daughter of a computer geek turned artist. My daughter, 18, is a fan.] http://youtu.be/heKK95DAKms Thanks for those links by the way. I delivered one of those talks, but hadn't until tonight heard the panel moderated by Zac Miller, dunno why. There's lots going on, cross-currents. I don't think you can go wrong investing more time in Python. Your daughter may or make not take to it (sometimes they just circle). If she just watches over your shoulder sometimes, as you tackle something you're working on... My foray into teaching high school right out of college, even with considerable computer training (not a computer science major though, liberal arts here) felt like one of those science fiction disaster films where all the cars are coming the other way on the freeway, and you're alone heading into Boston or whatever. The teachers were all leaving that career, feeling burned out, and knew if they could get more computer skills, they could probably get a higher paying position outside of teaching. People with computer skills were not flooding in to help with math teaching. They had their sites set elsewhere. I later worked at McGraw-Hill and looked at textbook publishing from that angle. Lets just say there's lots of inertia in this picture, and that teachers aren't usually revolutionaries (only sometimes). This was 1981 (I was class of 1980). I ended up in a small exclusive Catholic academy for young women (a high school) for a couple years. My contemporaries, with similar training, would soon be making six times my income, but I was young and carefree and already privileged, so I was willing to live poor. I'm now listening to Maria Litvin in the background. Her book, written with her partner Gary (a poster to this list) is worth ordering if you don't have it yet: Mathematics for the Digital Age and Programming in Python (Skylit Publishing). http://www.skylit.com/mathandpython.html OK, now Jeff is starting talking. I've met him in person several times, fun guy, a pioneer in this area. "Is that Jeff Elkner?" Steve just asked, recognizing the voice on my laptop. That's Steve Holden, former chairman of Python Software Foundation. I'm over at his apartment on Superbowl Sunday -- the power's out in the stadium. I missed the first half of the game, watching Tosca (the opera) downtown (a windfall free ticket). Your idea to do fractions, to build them from the inside out, is a good idea. You could start with Guido's record-simple GCD function, for Euclid's Algorithm, then gradually build out with __add__, __mul__ etc. using these inside a class (you can call out to them). def gcd(a, b): while b: a, b = b, a % b return a def lcm(a, b): return ( a * b ) // gcd(a, b) The thing about Euclid's Algorithm is it's barely taught at all in high schools, and if you ask why, then you've again jumped into a rather deep discussion, deeper than just computers. The Litvins books starts to build a Fraction but mostly eschews defining classes. A "classes early" approach is also doable -- many different approaches to this airport, pick your vector. I show how a class looks something like a snake: class Head: # rib cage def __rib__(self): pass # air between ribs def __rib__(self): pass def __rib__(self): pass def __rib__(self): pass def __rib__(self): pass ... and in general use a lot of biological metaphors / analogies. Kirby Web resources: http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/numeracy0.html http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/cp4e.html _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list Edu-sig@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
