robert wrote: > Yes - start them explore. I'd not want to be "teached" a specific > _language_ in a course longer that one day. A language cannot be teached. > Who of the posters in this thread want themselves to be _teached_ more > than one day on a language? > > Isn't the fun, finding the right tools for certain purposes one-self?
That holds for bright, motivated students. The problem is the others. Some people are totally lost when you throw them a book and say "learn this". So the choices are: 1. Do it and watch the rank-and-file students abandon the major 2. Provide more language-specific instruction Now places like Berkeley and MIT can afford to take route 1. They already have a surplus of bright, motivated students. But at many (most?) schools, route 2 is in the dept's best interest. Number of majors affects prestige, influence, and at many state schools funding. Telling the rank-and-file to shove off is shooting themselves in the foot, and ultimately hurts the good students as well with a lesser dept. These depts are walking a tightrope as they try hard to maintain minimum standards. It's not a binary choice really, it's a spectrum. So while route 1 may be better for the profession as a whole, the current educational system has some pretty strong pressures for route 2. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list