Comments on the comments, from a ruthless pragmatist

I’ve been thinking about the fracas, brouhaha, kerfuffle (or whatever you want to call it) that broke out in the comments under Matt’s post “Teaching CA in Schools”.  I decided to put my thoughts into a letter to the CAN Board and post it in the forums, rather than add to the above-mentioned fracas, or post my whole letter here on the front page.  How come? First, because I think some important issues came up which have to do with what CAN is for, and which deserve to be discussed by the Board and by CAN members. I’m not on the CAN Board anymore ( because I’ve seen a lot of nasty cases of Founder’s Disease, and I don’t want to get it), but like any other CAN member, I can make suggestions, and the “Dear Board” forum is the place to do it. I didn’t post the letter here because I don’t want to open the door for anonymous comments; if you’re going to contribute to the discussion on the purpose of CAN, I think you need to take responsibility for whatever you say, and I think you also need to be a member. So, with all that said, here’s the link to my letter.