Boy, your friend must be trying to gain sainthood huh? :)

As others have said, having a teacher trying to bluff their way through things ends up making the class a horrible experince. I ran in to a similar experience in Junior College many, many years ago with an advanced electronics class. They brought in a teacher who had been in industry all his life, never taught, and threw him in to an advanced class. Not good. Most of the class ignored him and one fellow spent the entire semester designing an add-on device for a joystick.

The one thing that your friend has going for him at this point is you. The lesson plan idea is a must I would agree. And gearing it towards something that the kids can actually use is going to be imperative. Maybe 1 out of the whole class is going to be interested in writing Perl programs that actually do something ( hopefully more will ) but the rest of the class is going to be bored to tears unless they can see some practical thing they can get out of it.

The other thing your friend should watch out for is the "hacker wannabes" that are bound to be there.

Now if you're assuming that the class doesn't even know how to turn on the pc, you're up against a rough road to begin with. Probably the best thing to do is to whet their appetites to Perl. Open their eyes. Show what can be done and maybe some will take to it and go on from there.

And as a last resort, and I'm almost hesitant to suggest this, but... you could suggest the monestary for support. Although the last thing anyone wants is a bunch of people asking for answers to homework, I know, but like I said, even if 1 out of 15 picks up and takes to Perl, that's one more than before.

I wish your friend the best of luck!

Some people fall from grace. I prefer a running start...

In reply to Re: Can a non-programmer teach Perl? by Popcorn Dave
in thread Can a non-programmer teach Perl? by Ovid

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