Nicholas Tollervey
Nicholas H. Tollervey is a classically trained musician, philosophy graduate, teacher, writer, and software developer. He’s just like this biography: concise, honest, and full of useful information.
5 reasons why Python is a popular teaching language
Python's simplicity makes it accessible to learners and teachers alike.
Download a free copy of Python in Education. Editor’s note: this is an excerpt from Python in Education, a free report written by Nicholas Tollervey.
I am going to answer a very simple question: which features of the Python language itself make it appropriate for education? This will involve learning a little Python and reading some code. But don’t worry if you’re not a coder! This chapter will hopefully open your eyes to how easy it is to learn Python (and thus, why it is such a popular choice as a teaching language).
Code readability
When I write a to-do list on a piece of paper, it looks something like this:
Shopping Fix broken gutter Mow the lawn
This is an obvious list of items. If I wanted to break down my to-do list a bit further, I might write something like this:
Shopping:
Eggs
Bacon
Tomatoes
Fix broken gutter:
Borrow ladder from next door
Find hammer and nails
Return ladder!
Mow the lawn:
Check lawn around pond for frogs
Check mower fuel level
Intuitively, we understand that the main tasks are broken down into sub-tasks that are indented underneath the main task to which they relate. This makes it easy to see, at a glance, how the tasks relate to each other.