No. You are missing the point. The fundamentals are very simple and easy to learn. That's what makes them "fundamental."
I think what we actually disagree about is just the exact definition of "fundamentals". I personally would not say "the fundamentals are very simple and easy to learn". At least not if you're learning them to the level of depth that I would want to learn them.
Now if we're just saying that people only need a very high level overview of "the fundamentals", then that might swing the equation back the other way. But that, to me, is exactly the knob that the MIT guys were twiddling... moving away from SICP and using Python doesn't mean they aren't still teaching fundamentals, it just sounds like they aren't going quite as deep.
Anyway, it's an analog continuum, not a binary / discrete thing. We (the collective we) will probably always be arguing about exactly where on that scale to be.
Fair enough... from that point of view, I think we agree more than we disagree.
And please don't take anything I'm saying here as an argument against learning fundamentals.. all I'm really saying is that I can understand, even appreciate, the decision MIT made. Whether or not I entirely agree with it is a slightly different issue. But I will say that I don't think they should be excoriated over the decision.
I think what we actually disagree about is just the exact definition of "fundamentals". I personally would not say "the fundamentals are very simple and easy to learn". At least not if you're learning them to the level of depth that I would want to learn them.
Now if we're just saying that people only need a very high level overview of "the fundamentals", then that might swing the equation back the other way. But that, to me, is exactly the knob that the MIT guys were twiddling... moving away from SICP and using Python doesn't mean they aren't still teaching fundamentals, it just sounds like they aren't going quite as deep.
Anyway, it's an analog continuum, not a binary / discrete thing. We (the collective we) will probably always be arguing about exactly where on that scale to be.