Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - Colleges II

Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - Colleges II

Back to college!!

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My bias #1 - College’s main purpose is to educate

My bias #2 - Such education can come in a particular field (‘major’) or outside of that field (‘general education’).

My bias #3 - College graduates ‘should be’ reasonably well-rounded members of society

My bias #4 - College (and higher education) should appropriately challenge students without frustrating them.

My bias #5 - With ‘traditional-age’ students, college should help the student mature.

My bias #6 - College should prepare a student for life possibly in a particular discipline (major) or to be flexible

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(A quote I learned along the line:  College is the fountain of knowledge where students go to drink”)

Let’s look at some of my biases today.

Bias #1 -My bias #1 - College’s main purpose is to educate

Over the years, we have found reasonably intelligent high school students who are not educated.  They have trouble doing mathematics and writing, they lack some familiarity with geography, history, science, and other disciplines.  

Now, it should be that students who did not get educated in high school should not go on to college.  At one point, college was for those students with reasonable intelligence.  “Convenient passing a student in high school because they are ‘nice’, because they came to class every day, because they were not a disruption, smiled and tried might be harmful to the student.  But, that is a judgment call.  There are those who are gifted in arts or another discipline that cannot understand the most basic algebraic concepts.  It might be like the business entrepreneur who grew his business from 100 million to 120 million and he says it grew by 200 percent.  (Does it matter if that person can’t do percentages well?  They are somehow providing a successful service and most likely contributing to society, and employing other people.)

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Bias #2 and #3 - -  #2 - Such education can come in a particular field (‘major’) or outside of that field (‘general education’). - -  #3 - College graduates ‘should be’ reasonably well-rounded members of society

General education is part of a standard curriculum - to be a reasonable citizen of the world.

Many of my students in the past said “I’d rather take more computer classes and not take English (or Psychology, or Science).  But, the reality is that whatever you do for a living, you should be able to write a sentence, understand a person’s point of view and use a scientific approach to solve a problem

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Bias #4 I had professors that seemed to want to show off how erudite they were and gave assignments that overly challenged AND frustrated the learner.  I was teaching business computing, and a colleague (and friend), wanted students to write a program that would take in any number base (like base 7) and convert it to any other number base (like base 13).  I was a bit undecided on his assignment - it was a good learning experience on number bases, but of little practical value.  (Now, taking something in hexadecimal and converting that to decimal might have been better - or octal, or binary).  This also depends on the level of the class.  An introductory or general education course should challenge appropriately and differently than a graduate assignment.  

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I’m going to save bias #5 for tomorrow: My bias #5 - With ‘traditional-age’ students, college should help the student mature.

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Bias #6 - 

My bias #6 - College should prepare a student for life possibly in a particular discipline (major) or to be flexible

How many adults are still working in their major field?  One friend is definitely in the business field, but his undergraduate degree in chemistry prepared him for his current job of sales manager for a large, multinational chemical company. 

Does a college degree mean that the person has persevered and gotten a four-year-degree and that they should be able to adapt to their environment?  

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“Sometimes you learn because of the professor and sometimes you learn in spite of the professor!!!”

In life, you have great people to work with, and people that you don’t like to work with.  My bias is that you should learn because of your professor. Your professor should be understanding and encouraging (like LMG or TF).  But, there are times that you learn in spite of the professor.  

Likewise, at work there are ‘jerks’ and ‘friends’ - and you have to learn to work with all people!!  (And, this year, I have Republican and Democratic friends - and I have to LOVE them all!!!)

I taught a very difficult class in Operating Systems (most particularly Job Control Language - JCL) since many of our students were being employed on big COBOL or PL/I mainframe systems.  Knowing how to allocate resources, and yet stay within parameters (not getting into an infinite loop and locking up the machine) could be important.  

While this was learning because of the instructor, one of my favorite memories was a set of students who formed a solid study group. It seemed that they had become friends and tried to take most of their classes as a group.  

My tests in JCL were difficult - you needed to study and know the material.  And, (blush), I was obnoxious in the testing room!!  For some odd reason, I loved to wander around and kick book bags (if I could get to them, and if I could I would kick them (gently) into a pile someplace in the room.  I had some personal ‘rules’ - no use of hands, and being gentle.  (Talk about an idiocracy) This study group had heard of my antics and while they didn’t act on the first test, they did after that.  

They brought me a “busy box” - little matchbox cars, tiny Lego sets, coloring books, tiny jigsaw puzzles, and crossword puzzles.  Their aim was to keep me busy so they could take the test in peace!!  (And, they won!!)

And, on the final test - which I had no time limit - open note, open time - except when there were two people left in the room, the test was over - they included in my busy box a bottle of wine, and a pair of slippers (so I could relax while grading their tests).  (Of course, the instigator was SF).  They humbled me (which was hard to do).  THANK YOU FOR GREAT MEMORIES!!!

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More tomorrow on my views of education!!!

LOVE WINS!!

HUGS!!

Karen