@TerryRitchie
I get that ASM coders could look at BASIC coders and say we don't know what's going on under the hood, either. Oh, and then what would the few bit flippers in existence have to say about them! Well, I suppose it's all about your point of reference but a language created to be higher level simply obfuscates the process of coding without the use of libraries. To me, that's a lot of valuable coding knowledge lost, and does nothing to stimulate thought. Brain development is memory, but it's also the process of associating and piecing those memories together in a useful way.
I'm bummed they forced Python on your classroom. A similar thing happened to one of my friends, and one of the very few females in the QB community, Solitaire. She had to give up teaching QBasic for .Net. Her philosophy about transitioning was similar to yours. She also tried to impart learning over wrote memory whenever she could.
Anyway, and don't take this the wrong way, I have a very low opinion of teachers these days. In my kid and young adult years, I felt like 10% of a teaching institution was made up of excellent instructors, 80% were average, and 10% were absolute crap. Today, I'd say 2% are excellent, 8% are average, and 90% are absolute crap. That's because the majority won't stand up to the teacher's unions and say no to the damage being done to students with the current curricula and delivery system. With that said, thank you for being a 2%er.
Pete
I get that ASM coders could look at BASIC coders and say we don't know what's going on under the hood, either. Oh, and then what would the few bit flippers in existence have to say about them! Well, I suppose it's all about your point of reference but a language created to be higher level simply obfuscates the process of coding without the use of libraries. To me, that's a lot of valuable coding knowledge lost, and does nothing to stimulate thought. Brain development is memory, but it's also the process of associating and piecing those memories together in a useful way.
I'm bummed they forced Python on your classroom. A similar thing happened to one of my friends, and one of the very few females in the QB community, Solitaire. She had to give up teaching QBasic for .Net. Her philosophy about transitioning was similar to yours. She also tried to impart learning over wrote memory whenever she could.
Anyway, and don't take this the wrong way, I have a very low opinion of teachers these days. In my kid and young adult years, I felt like 10% of a teaching institution was made up of excellent instructors, 80% were average, and 10% were absolute crap. Today, I'd say 2% are excellent, 8% are average, and 90% are absolute crap. That's because the majority won't stand up to the teacher's unions and say no to the damage being done to students with the current curricula and delivery system. With that said, thank you for being a 2%er.
Pete