We ran into this problem often teaching R when I was in grad school. However, in the years since, the tidyverse has put strong focus on getting users manipulati

We ran into this problem often teaching R when I was in grad school. However, in the years since, the tidyverse has put strong focus on getting users manipulating data even if they don't know how to define a function, etc..! Here's a useful post, comparing the classic approach you mention to an alternative http://varianceexplained.org/r/teach-tidyverse/ http://varianceexplained.org/r/teach-tidyverse/