Pythonic Andragogy
I branded around this obscure meme, knowing it was bound to raise eyebrows. Both "Pythonic" and "Andragogy" are real words, although my spellchecker is flagging them both -- add to dictionary -- but they're not often seen together except here around 4D Solutions (my company), sponsor of one Oregon Curriculum Network (OCN).
"Pythonic" means "pithy" and is used to applaud especially elegant code in the computer language known as Python, named for Monty Python, but not shedding the snake associations either, just check out the logo.
"Andragogy" is the correlate of "pedagogy" and means "the study and development of teaching techniques geared specifically for adults".
We know from television that kids and adults enjoy different kinds of programming, which is not to deny lots of overlap. Especially in this day and age, when most adults grew up with television: the animation form ("cartoons") is just as likely to be aimed at their age group.
Political newspaper cartoonists, such as Thomas Nast and later Homer Davenport -- to name some in the Hearst stable -- are primarily aiming at adult readers, not children so much.
The rise of the graphic novel defines yet further continuity between pedagogy and andragogy, in terms of preferred media. Kids don't necessarily "outgrow" their favorite media.
Perhaps the ultimate bridge twixt peda- and andragogy was Sesame Street, in that the muppet cast went from a show for preschoolers, to a big screen for grownups, in many cases with the same fans, over a span of some decades.
If you're thinking cartoons about Python coding is where I'm going with this, you're certainly right, to a degree.
My Coffee Shops Network partners know about "hypertoons" and the LCD "reveries" allowing guests to "trance out" (should they wish it). The hypertoon art form, of randomly looping in scenario spaghetti balls, is its own industry, and harnesses geometry.
Python likewise takes us towards geometry, through a Polyhedron type of object, so yes, Pythonic cartoons, most definitely.
We've also got the mythology going, with the python and Nike god-let both avatars of Athena. The Oracle of Delphi depended on Python Power [tm] for soothsaying, until Apollo stormed in, determined to take over the operation and put the Python out of business. By most accounts, the he slew the dragon, an early prototype for St. George. However, our "dragon" escapes in some versions, to reunite in some New Delphi across the seas. "Just Use It" goes the slogan, right up there with "Fits Your Brain" and "Batteries Included".
Coffee Shops Network is the winnings for charity enterprise, affectionately known as "church bingo" to its sales force. I serve as CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) along with CRO (Glenn) and CTO (Nirel) etc.. You should think of us as always in startup mode, even if the ideas go back a long ways, have a track record. We're a philosophy as well.
Oregon Curriculum Network was the former high school mathematics teacher from Princeton, still pumped about coding languages and hypertext. Like Paul Romer, a winner of this years Nobel Prize in Economics, I'm a fan of what Knuth calls "literate programming", and in the form known as Jupyter Notebooks. Check out the April 2018 issue of Atlantic Monthly for more on the Jupyter Notebook revolution, which yes, stems from the Pythonic ecosystem.
This summer, OCN collaborated with Saturday Academy and Flextegrity Inc., to pull off a Martian Math workshop for middle schoolers. The context was a bigger summer camp with several offerings. Kids in my class might have opted for Artificial Intelligence in the same room at Reed College. I lectured fifteen minutes every morning for five days, the let them split up into interest groups. Some went for the C6XTY, a very hard to find educational supply that imparts muscle memory of the CCP matrix, something technical in STEM.
Does any of this mean I actually teach Python to adults? I've talked about kids, and high school teaching.
As my LinkedIn resume suggests, yes, I'm still on track with my andragogical agenda. It's not either / or. As I was saying, continuity is key, and the same muppets may do double duty, with kids and adults alike.