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I had a math teacher at my high school who used python and SAGE to teach us pre-calculus as well as programming, computational thinking and some mathematical lo

I had a math teacher at my high school who used python and SAGE to teach us pre-calculus as well as programming, computational thinking and some mathematical logic. He was an absolute genius and I wouldn't be where I was if it wasn't for him - unfortunately the school saw him as a threat to the standard model of teaching and drove him insane before he just quit. I hope he's doing ok.

degenerate 9y ago
You should try to find him and say hello.
- misingnoglic 9y ago
  I'll have to email him - I was planning on doing so once I finish my senior honors thesis in CS education (which I'm dedicating to him).
  - demonshalo 9y ago
    I had a teacher that changed me for the better, unfortunately I never got the chance to thank him as he passed away unexpectedly :/ If I were you I would send an email right away. You never know what happens.
ionforce 9y ago
Did anyone else, other students, find his methods effective?
- misingnoglic 9y ago
  For sure - I can think of several other students who took his class and are now doing extremely well in Computer Science careers. Of course I don't have statistics on that or anything, but there's a large group of graduates from my school who were extremely upset when they found out what the school did to him.
mathgladiator 9y ago
I've had thoughts like this, using sci-py to teach kids how to hack math. Our education system is kind of sad face.
- zokier 9y ago
  Have you heard this Wolfram TED talk about the subject: http://blog.wolfram.com/2010/11/23/conrad-wolframs-ted-talk-stop-teaching-calculating-start-teaching-math/ http://blog.wolfram.com/2010/11/23/conrad-wolframs-ted-talk-...
- misingnoglic 9y ago
  It was definitely cool - he had us writing python functions to estimate the area under a curve (and then visualize it), and other things I don't quite remember at this moment. Once he made us define math functions just based on there being a 0, and a successor function, which happens to be what I'm doing in a graduate Math Logic course at my university.
  - mtempm 9y ago
    That's really incredible. It's sad to see educators like this get pushed out of their field. I had some incredible teachers as well, but also some awful ones. There needs to be greater competitive components added to the education system, such as statistically significant pupil success in education and career outcomes.
fasquoika 9y ago
I had a similar experience with my AP calculus teacher in high school. Luckily, he's dramatically overqualified for the teaching position and his classes consistently do exceptionally on standardized tests, so the administration basically gives him a wide berth.
jodooshi 9y ago
> People laughed at Seymour Papert in the 1960s, more than half a century ago, when he vividly talked about children using computers as instruments for learning and for enhancing creativity, innovation, and "concretizing" computational thinking.[1] [1] http://papert.org/ http://papert.org/

degenerate 9y ago

You should try to find him and say hello.

misingnoglic 9y ago
I'll have to email him - I was planning on doing so once I finish my senior honors thesis in CS education (which I'm dedicating to him).
- demonshalo 9y ago
  I had a teacher that changed me for the better, unfortunately I never got the chance to thank him as he passed away unexpectedly :/ If I were you I would send an email right away. You never know what happens.

ionforce 9y ago

Did anyone else, other students, find his methods effective?

misingnoglic 9y ago
For sure - I can think of several other students who took his class and are now doing extremely well in Computer Science careers. Of course I don't have statistics on that or anything, but there's a large group of graduates from my school who were extremely upset when they found out what the school did to him.

mathgladiator 9y ago

I've had thoughts like this, using sci-py to teach kids how to hack math. Our education system is kind of sad face.

zokier 9y ago
Have you heard this Wolfram TED talk about the subject: http://blog.wolfram.com/2010/11/23/conrad-wolframs-ted-talk-stop-teaching-calculating-start-teaching-math/ http://blog.wolfram.com/2010/11/23/conrad-wolframs-ted-talk-...
misingnoglic 9y ago
It was definitely cool - he had us writing python functions to estimate the area under a curve (and then visualize it), and other things I don't quite remember at this moment. Once he made us define math functions just based on there being a 0, and a successor function, which happens to be what I'm doing in a graduate Math Logic course at my university.
- mtempm 9y ago
  That's really incredible. It's sad to see educators like this get pushed out of their field. I had some incredible teachers as well, but also some awful ones. There needs to be greater competitive components added to the education system, such as statistically significant pupil success in education and career outcomes.

fasquoika 9y ago

I had a similar experience with my AP calculus teacher in high school. Luckily, he's dramatically overqualified for the teaching position and his classes consistently do exceptionally on standardized tests, so the administration basically gives him a wide berth.

jodooshi 9y ago

> People laughed at Seymour Papert in the 1960s, more than half a century ago, when he vividly talked about children using computers as instruments for learning and for enhancing creativity, innovation, and "concretizing" computational thinking.[1] [1] http://papert.org/ http://papert.org/