Comment by TheSOB88

Just teach lambda calculus and get it over with. That stuff's awesome without having to bring in scaly beings. Dealing with these inane pictures just adds too much overhead. I remember when we were learning about these in class - I was so confused about the ambiguities in the alligator representation, but everything became clear once we switched to mathematical notation. I'm quite convinced I would have learned it perfectly fine without these images.

This is a big problem with education today, IMO - trying to make everything 'fun' by dumbing it down and giving it pictures. Even college textbooks have started talking to me as if I were an 8-year-old. I prefer the converse - when I was 8, reading high school textbooks from the decade prior. I didn't understand much, but it was still quite interesting.