this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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Programming
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Python does have OOP but you are not at all forced to use it. You can write code in a functional or even procedural style.
I do hate that python doesent have proper support for typing but I think weakly typed variables will actually help beginners as it is less to think about to start off with.
I think there are pros and cons here. In other languages it is considered good style to use indentation anyway.
I'm sure it is difficult to teach a large class like that though. It was hard enough for me to learn with a much more favourable teacher to student ratio than you probably have. Sorry but honestly I do sympathise with admin as well.
It's odd to me that you're disagreeing with their actual experience teaching.
Lots of us have the experience of being the kid in that situation though. I learnt python in secondary school.
Which kid? The gifted one, the one who didn't understand loops and used 20 variables for 20 iterations, the one who didn't understand how to write pseudo code, the one who was dyslexic,.....?
Which Year? I didn't say it wasn't appropriate for high school, I said it wasn't appropriate for Year 7 as a first programming language.
Also, who do you mean by "us"? Programmers? Not all the kids in class want to be programmers, and this isn't a programming class - it's Computer Science. We cover topics like hardware, the Internet, Cybersecurity, the history of computers, data analytics, etc. Not only do not all of them want to be programmers, not even all of them want to be in I.T. - they're just, you know, interested in computers (or in some cases they're in the course because their parents think they should be in it - I've had a couple of those students). We only spend 6 weeks on programming (we spend 6 weeks on each topic), or sometimes we might do it twice and spend 12 weeks on it, and that's it for the year! You can't teach Year 7 kids algorithms, pseudo code, basic programming concepts (variables, branches, and loops) and OOP as well in one year. Especially when not even all of them are interested in programming. It's just one topic we cover. OOP is something that shouldn't be covered until at least Year 8, preferably Year 9 (by which stage students have decided if they want to continue on this path or not, and the ones we still have left we start getting more hard-core... which is where the "us" I presume you're referring to come in).