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by ModernMech 1894 days ago
No because you know what happens? Students snicker and ask insincere questions just so they can say coq in class in front of their friends. They record their professor saying coq and splice it together and upload it to their social media feeds. Female students squirm in their seats and become disengaged, counting down the minutes until the class ends.

It’s the same reason I can’t teach brainfuck. There are 10001 languages worthy of class time and these languages disqualify themselves in my opinion.
1 comments
Galanwe 1894 days ago
How old are your students? I'm truly amazed by what you're saying.

As others mentioned, "bit" means "cock" in French, but by the time you learn what a bit is, you're old enough to not laugh at it anymore. And you surely get to use Coq in your studies when you're older than when you learn about bits.

I mean, in France, laughing at your teacher because he speaks of "bits" (cocks) and you're >16yo would certainly make you look like mentally challenged.

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ModernMech 1894 days ago
16 - 21. With 200 students in a room there are vast disparities in maturity levels.
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thu2111 1893 days ago
Why are you trying to teach 16 year olds theorem proving? They're are no situations in which that will ever be interesting or useful to them, so it's no surprise they would be bored and distracted.
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ModernMech 1892 days ago
I teach a class on Programming Languages at a US university as part of an accredited CS program. The curriculum is what it is. I don't control who takes my class, and I don't restrict access to any student as long as they meet the prerequisites. At the beginning of the semester I get a roster, and I teach them the material.

For what it's worth, the 16 year old are usually the better behaved, as they are advanced students from high school who are beyond their peers in ability. They find the material eminently fascinating and are fully engaged. The ones to watch out for are the 21 year olds.

I personally learned Coq at 14. Who are you to decide what's interesting and useful to 16 year olds?

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6gvONxR4sf7o 1894 days ago
Bit is a little less niche than coq, which changes things too.
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