[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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