This thread on Hacker News terrifies me

[Laeeth Isharc]

On Sunday, 2 September 2018 at 06:25:47 UTC, Nick Sabalausky 
(Abscissa) wrote:
> On 08/31/2018 07:47 PM, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
>> 
>> However, many
>> teachers really aren't great programmers. They aren't 
>> necessarily bad
>> programmers, but unless they spent a bunch of time in industry 
>> before
>> teaching, odds are that they don't have all of the software 
>> engineering
>> skills that the students are going to need once they get into 
>> the field. And
>> most courses aren't designed to teach students the practical 
>> skills.
> This is why we really should bring back the ancient practice of 
> apprenticeship, that we've mostly gotten away from.
>
> Doesn't have to be identical to the old system in every detail, 
> but who better to teach XYZ to members a new generation than 
> those who ARE experts at XYZ.
>
> Sure, teaching in and of itself is a skill, and not every 
> domain expert is a good teacher. But like any skill, it can be 
> learned. And after all: Who really stands a better chance at 
> passing on expertise?:
>
> A. Someone who already has the expertise, but isn't an expert 
> in teaching.
>
> B. Someone who is an expert at teaching, but doesn't posses 
> what's being taught anyway.
>
> Hint: No matter how good of a teacher you are, you can't teach 
> what you don't know.
>
> Heck, if all else fails, pair up domain experts WITH teaching 
> experts! No need for any jacks-of-all-trades: When people 
> become domain experts, just "apprentice" them in a secondary 
> skill: Teaching their domain.
>
> Sounds a heck of a lot better to me than the ridiculous current 
> strategy of: Separate the entire population into "theory" (ie, 
> Academia) and "practical" (ie, Industry) even though it's 
> obvious that the *combination* of theory and practical is 
> essential for any good work on either side. Have only the 
> "theory" people do all the teaching for the next generation of 
> BOTH "theory" and "practical" folks. Students then gain the 
> "practical" side from...what, the freaking ether???? From the 
> industry which doesn't care about quality, only profit??? From 
> the "theory" folk that are never taught the "practical"??? From 
> where, out of a magical freaking hat?!?!?

I agree.  I have been arguing the same for a few years now.

https://www.quora.com/With-6-million-job-openings-in-the-US-why-are-people-complaining-that-there-are-no-jobs-available/answer/Laeeth-Isharc?srid=7h

We de-emphasized degrees and those are information only unless 
for work permits it is a factor (and sadly it is) and also are 
open to hiring people with less vocationally relevant degrees.  A 
recent hire I made was a chap who studied music at Oxford and 
played the organ around the corner.  His boss is a Fellow in 
Maths at Trinity College, Cambridge and us very happy with him.

And we started hiring apprentices ourselves.  The proximate 
trigger for me to make it happen was a frustrating set of 
interviews with more career-oriented people from banks for a 
support role in London.  "Is it really asking too much to expect 
that somebody who works on computers should actually like playing 
with them ?"

So we went to a technical college nearby where someone in the 
group lives and we made a start this year and in time it will 
grow.

The government introduced an apprenticeship programme.  I don't 
think many people use it yet because it's not adapted to 
commercial factors.  But anything new is bad in the first version 
and it will get better.