[IAEP] [Edu-sig] ACM Urges Obama to Include CS as Core ComponentofScience, Math Education

[gerry_lowry (alliston ontario canada)]

Actually, I was not talking about prodigies of any age.

The idea was not about "hitting a pre-teen with ... J", rather it's about using J as a workbench
with which educators can rapidly mentor your average student to experiment and grow with J
and with the J IDE.  In the following example, I recall a book called "Confessions of a Sneaky Organic Cook
(Or, How to Make Your Family Healthy When They're Not Looking!)".

Perhaps, with appropriate prepartion, an educator might mentor a number of students
with a technique that might be called "Confessions of a Sneaky Educator (or How to get
average students to learn above average computer and mathematics skills)".

very simplistic example in J:

   ADD       =.        +/        NB. here "ADD" means to add some numbers
   
   ADD 2 2
4

   ADD 1 3 5 7 11 13 17 19
76
   
   SUM      =.        ADD        NB. here "SUM" is another word for "ADD"
   
   SUM 2 2
4
   
   NB. we now have THREE similar ways to add some numbers:
   
   +/   2 2      
4
   ADD  2 2
4
   SUM  2 2
4



If we only focus on prodigies, we short change society.  There are many potential students
who are highly capable even though they are not prodigies.

Further, providing and mentoring a variety of tools via OLPC XO-1 may even help the educators
to discover the next Srinivasa Ramanujan before she/he is washed out to sea by a tsunami
or blown to bits by a roadside IED.

Regards,
Gerry

P.S.:  Best wishes to all and especially to the underprivileged in 2009 and beyond.