Hello everyone, I'm new to this list, but I have been an informal mentor for computer science students at Harvard for several years, and I'd like to share some observations that may be relevant. In my experience, students are willing to ask many technical questions in person that they simply won't ask privately over email, and very few students seem willing to ask questions on public mailing lists at all.
My impression from these personal observations is that many students benefit greatly from informal, ephemeral communication with technical mentors. It may not be easy to analyze _why_ things work this way, but I believe part of the answer is that the student-mentor relationship is not primarily about the information exchanged; it is about trust. The student knows that in a moment of deep frustration, he or she can privately turn to someone with the patience and experience to help without being humiliated, which is tremendously reassuring. At Harvard, we are currently witnessing a huge increase in student interest in computer science in general and Python in particular, which I hope is representative of a broader trend. Excellent mentorship is rare, and I believe strong mentors from the Python community could be a potent draw for new contributors in this atmosphere of enthusiasm. One way or another, I hope you can facilitate informal, ephemeral communication between these newcomers and their mentors to maximize the newcomers' chances of success. Many thanks, Zak _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
