Comment by phil917
18 days ago
So many of the writer's issues with students today are things I did myself a good amount when I was in college around 15 years ago at this point. I skipped classes all the time and I was often browsing the web on my phone / laptop even if I did goto class.
If I'm being honest, a lot of my professors (perhaps a big majority even) were just bad teachers and I got much more value out of the textbook, looking up stuff on the internet, or just tinkering with the at home assignments. I can say with 100% certainty that ChatGPT would have been infinitely more helpful in me learning calculus compared to the professor who taught my class in university.
I also don't really align with the issues he has with students asking for the slide decks used in class. If it can help your students learn the material, the whole purpose of the class, then what's the big deal? This point in particular almost made it seem like he's a bit salty over his students not being deferential enough to him.
All in all, despite doing many of the things that this writer takes issue with when I was in college myself years ago, I have a great career and I'm good at my work. So I think the kids are going to be just fine.
Yes I think you're right about that. Most teachers are not good at teaching. You have to wonder why they need special certification to be a school teacher when the result is so bad. I know that most teachers were bad because I had a few excellent teachers and the contrast made it obvious. I failed high school math, then I went to university and did a more advanced math course; I got distinction. I didn't even invest more time. The difference is that, at university, I was mostly skipping the lectures and reading directly from the textbook.
Math at school was just insane; it was an endless stream of; if you see this problem, use this formula. If you see that problem, use that formula... But nobody understood what they were doing. Nobody learned math from first principles.
It's weird though because in university, as I was doing well in math, I came across John Von Neumann's quote "In mathematics, you don't understand things. You just get used to them."
To me, this suggests that some gifted people have the ability to apply complex rules without understanding them from first principles... But that was absolutely never the case for me. I'm the opposite of that. I can't apply something before I fully understand it.
I always laugh when professors complain that students doing poorly in the class don't show up to class or office hours; they might just be really bad teachers, and they know those things won't help them.