[plt-scheme] Re: Poacher turned gamekeeper

On Nov 9, 2009, at 7:19 PM, wooks wrote:

> They are all supposed to be newbies although I imagine some of them
> may have had some exposure and will want to know why they are not
> learning Java. That will probably be their second course anyway.
>
> They are a captive audience. They do not have the option of dropping
> the course.

OK, then showing them how much they don't know isn't such a high  
priority. (I'm thinking of the first day of Potions class in _Harry  
Potter_ book 1, where the kids can't POSSIBLY know the stuff Professor  
Snape is eager to demonstrate that they don't know.)

There will of course be some who, having written a dozen programs in  
Java or C++ or PHP or whatever, are convinced that if you're not  
teaching what they already know, it indicates your ignorance.  You can  
approach these students as Matthias suggests, by showing on the first  
day how much they don't know, or you can try to convince them that  
even if they DO already know a bunch of stuff, knowing more stuff is  
better than knowing less stuff, and this class will teach them  
different stuff.

Steve Bloch