[Novalug] Teaching Computers Science

Beartooth karhunhammas@Lserv.com
Wed Sep 26 12:35:58 EDT 2007


On Wed, 26 Sep 2007, Bonnie Dalzell wrote:

> Academically there is a difference between Ivy League schools and major
> landgrant type colleges. I have taught at some of both and it can best be
> explained as the difference between the European type academic system and
> the populist academic system. [...]

 	Well, I can only claim to've studied at both and taught 
at one, so ommv. Fwiw, I would distinguish less between Ivy 
League and land grant that between prestige schools and others; 
that seems to me to matter more than the other, particularly when 
it comes to getting jobs.

 	Again fwiw, the difference I saw there was the admission 
offices. The bright kids in the big schools were every bit as 
bright as in the prestige schools; but, at least in the courses I 
took (Harvard, Middlebury Language, Ohio State) and taught (Ohio 
State, Indiana, and a couple much smaller midwestern places), the 
teachers all did try to teach the students in front of them. (The 
fact that I managed to dodge the big courses in the elite schools 
may have made a difference.)

 	In fact, for several years in Indiana I taught an 
intensive course whose prerequisite was an A in the previous one. 
That course ran like greased lightning -- it was supposed to 
cover two semesters in one, but it invariably covered three; the 
final counted also as a challenge test for skipping the third, 
and everyone who ever took it did but one. (He was graduating at 
the end of our term.)

-- 
Beartooth Squirrelslayer
Work is for people who can't hunt.



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