Twokinds Forums

Bellhead wrote: ↑Wed May 06, 2020 2:32 am On the subject of teaching...
Two teachers per dozen students would be quite adequate, for lack of a better turn of phrase. That said, having less teachers isn't necessarily the issue. Keep in mind that even a country with a relatively small population would still have a ratio of student to teacher, which CAN be scaled up as a percentage of general population, so the issue lies not in people to do the job, but in the system's ability to bring people into it. Teachers around here make three cents less than dirt for shaping youths' minds and futures, so if that's the path you want, you're severely limited financially, to the point you might have to change careers just to survive.

On the subject of electronics...
While they can be useful, I feel their best contributions are visual aids, virtual assistance, and sharing of information. Teaching is not something for electronics to be doing.

Additionally...
The point about only learning when you want to was stolen from Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Spoiler! length, book's story and off-topic

In the story, the character Phaedrus came up with the idea of a college without grades or scores of any kind until after the finals were taken and done. The idea behind this was that anyone who wanted to learn would stay, and anyone who didn't would leave, get a job, figure out what they wanted to do with their lives, then come back with renewed purpose.Those focused on grades would have to focus on their work, else lose their mind. On the other hand, people who usually failed and gave up because of bad grades would instead focus on the material itself instead, and would actually learn it. In practice, it worked, quite well, for the semester he did it. When he had his students evaluate the system, he found some interesting things.

Those who got good grades before, got mediocre or bad grades, and hated the system.
The middle of the class had mixed results, but placed fairly well.
The ones who usually failed, did well, and rated the system highly.

Phaedrus surmised that the over-achievers got recognition or gratification, or satisfaction or something by getting good grades, and didn't know how to react without them, while those that typically failed were no longer off-put by such low scores, allowing them to apply themselves without fear of being chastised for it.

Great book. Long, lots of philosophy, really makes you think. Also motorcycles.

he is not the type of professor who could not find a job at oracle or some big company and decided to teach so he would not starve to deat

JonahAndTheWolf wrote: ↑Sat May 09, 2020 12:55 am Cleaned up my last assignment, handed it in, and with that I'm officially done for this semester! Only one more to go!

I've got some other stuff to do, of course, but that can all wait while I pass out for at least a day xD

Technic[Bot] wrote: ↑Sat May 09, 2020 3:55 am unfortunately teaching is a hard job and a poorly paid one at that. it has always been a problem to find qualified people for teaching because they may make more money doing something else, specially in the case of higher education lectures. and if you teachers salaries become too high then you may not be able to pay enough teachers.
morever at least here in my country. can't speak for anywhere else. there is some stigma regarding beating a teacher. as one of my fellow classmates once so eloquently put it:

he is not the type of professor who could not find a job at oracle or some big company and decided to teach so he would not starve to deat

there is this idea that teaching is a crap job for when you are unable to find anything else. And I did meet a lot of teachers who were only doing it for paycheck and could not care less about the students or class. But they were not all of them

That sound like an interesting book, but I remember having a couple professors who simple graded the whole course on the last exam/project or at least that was a pretty significant portion of the grade. In practice the professor spend much less time grading homeworks and spend more time on the lectures. But most people simply forget to study till the last day before exam and failed the course.