On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 7:25 AM, Francois Dion <francois.d...@gmail.com> wrote: > Even worse would be the case of a young aficionado. It is very hard > to infer the age of a person from a post. As Python is making inroads > in the K-12 sector and through inexpensive computing platforms such as > OLPC, the Raspberry Pi and the like, there is a potential to be > interacting with some very young programmers. I think right now the > bulk of them are sticking to forums (definitely the case with the > Raspberry Pi), but it is inevitable that the makeup of the readership > of this list will change. What will happen when a 9 year old kid who > loves computers is turned away by a cutting remark or heavy criticism? > Similarly, one should be considerate as to the language used. >
I am glad that you brought this point up. As some may recall from my first post, I mentioned that I was trying to encourage my 9-year old son (then 8 years old) to explore programming. As part of that effort I have set him up with his own PC with Internet access. We try to keep him well-supervised, but he is gaining in confidence in conducting searches for answers to his own questions. If he does ever "click" in his interest in Python, I could easily see him exploring this forum for answers. However, I would hate for him to be exposed to some of the "rhetoric" that has arisen here recently. On the other hand, I cannot perfectly protect him from everything and the information accessible from the Internet is of too much utility to forbid him its access. I will just prepare myself for some interesting questions in the near future! ~(:>)) -- Cheers! boB _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor