although genuine, this analysis is sort of 2D cutout characterization, which feeds class stereotypes in another way.. "When I was in school, I had to walk 2 miles every day, uphill both ways! .. you people are less motivated" sort of applies Modern life has the number of human signals daily, increased to stratospheric levels.. this is new, very new. It is not clear how intelligent, social people are changing under th…
The fact that an experience is stereotypical doesn't meant it is also inaccurate. Students today do not have it easier. They are working less hard at school because they need to work harder in other areas. Grades don't matter. Everyone gets strait-As so as long as you meat that standard there is little point in trying harder. Even Going to a good school matters less and less. The things kids have to do today are very…
> For today's kids grades are only the starting point. For instance, social media presence is now very important.
The fact that an experience is stereotypical doesn't meant it is also inaccurate. Students today do not have it easier. They are working less hard at school because they need to work harder in other areas. Grades don't matter. Everyone gets strait-As so as long as you meat that standard there is little point in trying harder. Even Going to a good school matters less and less. The things kids have to do today are very…
> For today's kids grades are only the starting point. For instance, social media presence is now very important. Care to elaborate on this?
“I was speechless when a school official asked me about all the clubbing and party pictures I posted on my Facebook Account. In hindsight, I think I got rejected from that school because they might have thought I will do the same once I join school."
"According to a 2017 survey administered by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, 11% of respondents said they "denied admission based on social media content" and another 7% rescinded offers for the same reason."
"According to the 364 colleges across the United States we recently spoke with, 25 percent tell us that they have visited an applicant’s social media page, such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to learn more about them*."
related, in china it was just announced that private tutoring will be m̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶i̶l̶l̶e̶g̶a̶l̶ severely restricted. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/exclusive-china-unveil-t...
It’s not really the subject of the article, but debating whether tutoring/teaching/education works, as a lot of posts here seem to be (without too much of a scooby what they’re talking about, if I may say so…), is really as daft as debating whether eg. computer programming works... Teaching is a real skill and, to say the least, it isn’t always easy, especially to pick up as a ‘side-hustle’. It has its own learning curve. That goes for both private tuition and teaching in schools/universities. Different teachers/teaching/learning styles suit different pupils. Trying to teach a subject soon shows up whether you really know it well, but you can really know a subject and be terrible at teaching it… I thought what was interesting about the article is that it highlights what can be a problematic power dynamic between parents/tutors, especially if you are inexperienced/unsure of yourself as a tutor/teacher (or financially precarious, as all the tutors/teachers I’ve ever known are), that is, you can end up pandering to what the parents/pupils think they want (or what a certain curriculum/bureaucracy demands), rather than working in the best, long-term interests of the pupil… But most parents/kids are brilliant and this isn’t a problem… Again, it really depends… A lot of practical/intuitive psychology/varied communication skills, patience and understanding are required to be a good teacher IMHO. and again, you get better in these respects over time… There are a heck of a lot of advantages to teaching one-on-one, especially with increasing class sizes/budget cuts in public institutions at least/vastly differing abilities/concentration levels of students… In an ideal world students would understand how lucky/privileged they were to get private tuition, though as you might imagine that’s not always the case… Being a great teacher is sometimes unavoidably about ‘teaching’ more than just the subject you are teaching, if that makes any sense, as is maybe highlighted at the beginning of the article…
>instead of aspiring to get a PhD to earn a mediocre salary(in comparison) at FANNG As a PhD at FAANG[1], I mourn that the default aspiration for getting a PhD isn't staying in academia and advancing science. And if you call FAANG salaries mediocre, I don't even know what you'd call academia salaries :( ------- [1] Formerly. Left for greener and less soul-draining pastures.
Isn’t there already overproduction of PhDs?
Given that we still don't have a Mars base, haven't solved the climate problem, and aren't living sustainably on the planet, I would say no.
One would think that in the internet era, where so much information and knowledge are avaialble online for free, those would disappear. Apprently not.
There's no way to replicate the engagement that an actual teacher/tutor can provide. Some people can do just fine with self-directed study but I image most people aren't autodidacts.
I tutored for a short stint during my senior year of highschool (graduated in S2020, so this included the pandemic), through my Fall 2020 term at university.
This is pretty much exactly what I experienced. I was a member of an online marketplace, so I wasn't necessarily an "elite" tutor by any means, but I found that most of my students just needed instruction that was more tailored to them. A lot of them were working towards AP exams (computer science), so working with someone who had taken that exam, knew what was on it, and intimately understood how it was graded proved rather valuable, at least from what the parents reported back to me.
Given that we still don't have a Mars base, haven't solved the climate problem, and aren't living sustainably on the planet, I would say no.
Is that because of a shortage of PhDs? Isn’t there a significant surplus of aeronautical engineers?
I personally know several aeronautical engineers (with doctorates) struggling to find work in their industry.
I know two folks with BAs in Environmental Science working as Product Managers (unrelated to environment sustainability).
Having goals we have yet to achieve doesn’t show a lack of specialists.
If anything the gap is in lower-level education.
Are our high schools emphasizing the urgency of the climate crisis? Are they emphasizing the need to live sustainably? Are they encouraging space exploration?
I picked this up from my time watching those British period pieces, so this might be an assumption based on a fictional telling of the past, but hasn't this concept of being a private teacher/tutor been around for hundreds of years? As these shows always showed the aristocracy, the aspiring hero/heroin had their private teachers "guiding them to greatness". I also found it cynical that instead of aspiring to get a Ph…
>instead of aspiring to get a PhD to earn a mediocre salary(in comparison) at FANNG As a PhD at FAANG[1], I mourn that the default aspiration for getting a PhD isn't staying in academia and advancing science. And if you call FAANG salaries mediocre, I don't even know what you'd call academia salaries :( ------- [1] Formerly. Left for greener and less soul-draining pastures.
> I mourn that the default aspiration for getting a PhD isn't staying in academia and advancing science.
It almost certainly is for the vast majority of grad students. There are just way more newly-minted PhDs than tenure-track jobs, especially if you add some (reasonable) constraints like location, R1 university etc.
Every student's case mentioned made it seem like the goal of tutoring is for the student to acquire elite status and prestige by going to highly selective schools through the planning by their neurotic parents. The material learned was less relevant. I want to teach my students how to follow their passions, how to strive for the life they want, rather than for hollow symbols of success. It seems like hollow symbols o…
I attended an "elite" boys school back in the 1990s. It was a doctor and lawyer factory. Everyone went to university and most got advanced degrees. But I talked to a teacher there recently. The students are now so wealthy that they are hard to motivate. Doctors have to touch sick people. Lawyers have to go work in an office. The students at my old school today don't dream of success. They all pass, they all do well,…
Doctors and lawyers aren’t elite though. They are solidly middle class.