Why I’m No Longer a Professor • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I’m No Longer a Professor

#61

Post by ACow_Adonis » Sun, Jun 29, 2014, 12:48 AM UTC

RussianCow wrote: post #31

javajosh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teachers should be judged based on student evaluations - but those evaluations should be deferred until, oh, 10 years later when students can honestly and dispassionately answer the question: "did that teacher enrich my life, prepare me for the livelihood I'm actually earning today?" Of course, administrations can't wait 10 years for feedback, more's the pity.

Not to mention I'm not going to remember any of my professors in 10 years.

Oh trust me, you do.

Not all of them, no. Of course not.

But you remember the great ones, and you remember the god damned awful ones. The great leave an emotional mark on you, they inspired you to go into their field, they showed you something that wowed you and has stuck with you over those 10 years. And the damned awful ones leave emotional scars that don't fade, and you'll talk to old veterans/classmates about them like you did a tour of 'Nam together...

Re: Why I’m No Longer a Professor

#62

Post by deong » Sun, Jun 29, 2014, 2:10 AM UTC

I guess I've been fortunate to have not encountered these particular pathologies. Certainly student evaluations are important, but every chair/dean I've dealt with has known enough to know how to read evaluations to weed out the honest feedback from the merely disgruntled or those just happy to not have to work too hard.

My complaints are generally that teaching evaluations don't matter enough. I like teaching, and I'm good at it, but you can only afford to be as good as you can be in the 20% of your time you can carve out of the grant-writing budget to devote to students. Spend too much time teaching and it won't matter how much the students learn.

Re: Why I’m No Longer a Professor

#63

Post by n0rm » Sun, Jun 29, 2014, 2:38 AM UTC

walshemj wrote: post #59

n0rm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. You should be learning things in college, not kissing ass. That's the very definition of the downward spiral education is in. Those contacts you make in big-name schools are mostly wishful thinking. Those places don't train you to be a friend. They train you to be ruthless, efficient "winners". Make your FU money and bail. Nietzsche explained why; > He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himse…

er no I don't think you understand the advantage that going to a good school and the a top 10 University can bring. Going to eaton then oxford and the bullingdon club opens far more doors look at the UK Cabinet. Do you think Pres Obahma would he be where he is today without going to Harvard and had just a community organizer with just a local Chicago high school education.

Do you really think Obama is where he is today out of merit?

He won't rock the boat. He won't go JFK on people and cause a ruckus.

Do you really believe an upper-middle-class lawyer can breeze past the multi-billionaires?

Look at what's happening in Detroit. Who the scapegoat is for the downfall of an entire city.

Re: Why I’m No Longer a Professor

#64

Post by dozzie » Sun, Jun 29, 2014, 9:21 AM UTC

Netcob wrote: post #24

In CS, I loved most of the practical assignments/projects. Especially those where students had some freedom to come up with creative solutions. Even having things go wrong was fun now and then when it ended up teaching me that I could think on my feet and come up with a solution on the spot. Sitting in a huge room, copying things off of a blackboard or simply trying to stay awake watching one slide after the other (u…

If you learn mainly about tools, then it's not computer science, it's IT.

Re: Why I’m No Longer a Professor

#65

Post by eli_gottlieb » Sun, Jun 29, 2014, 2:54 PM UTC

bkcooper wrote: post #58

pessimizer wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do, too. I don't care about their stupid pieces of paper - I just want to learn more things. There's been a lot of ink spilled lately about ending the expectation that everyone should go to college. I'd like to see more about how everybody is expected to stop learning after that, unless they're looking for more degrees (or the ubiquitous MBA in marketing/finance), and especially if they have a good job. I think tha…

I'd like to see more about how everybody is expected to stop learning after that, unless they're looking for more degrees . . . . Who has this expectation? To me your perspective is weird because it suggests that if you're not taking classes you're not learning. And I would say that I often see arguments for college along the lines of it helping you "learn how to learn" on your own.

It is actually harder to learn on your own if you don't have a set curriculum (that is, a dependency graph on academic subjects) and a guide to finding good materials (textbooks and such). Emphasis on the dependency graph: without one, it's far too easy to dive into something, get well over your head, and wind up more confused and frustrated than enlightened. This especially happens in the kind of deep, difficult subjects where you need the guidance of a good textbook or professor more, because not every teacher in the field actually knows the particular subfield.

Re: Why I’m No Longer a Professor

#66

Post by drdeadringer » Sun, Jun 29, 2014, 5:51 PM UTC

analog31 wrote: post #26

drdeadringer wrote: post #2

I got to the part of "It wasn't giving me joy anymore" and, well... that accounts for a large portion of why anybody is no longer [fill_in_blank]. I believe circumstances make up most of the rest.

I read it as "It wasn't giving me joy anymore and I had plenty of financially viable options that were probably the result of leveraging my academic title."

> and I had plenty of financially viable options...

A very good point.