D in the ix magazine about "programming today"

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Walter Bright" <newshound1 at digitalmars.com> wrote in message 
news:hhgv3b$7cq$1 at digitalmars.com...
> Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>> "Sean Kelly" <sean at invisibleduck.org> wrote in message 
>> news:hhetss$26er$1 at digitalmars.com...
>>> Intro courses in the sciences are often intended to weed out the people
>>
>> There's a *lot* of things wrong with the way schools work. Deliberate 
>> "weeding out" is a clear red flag that a school cares more about their 
>> own statistics (graduation ratio, etc) than actual education:
>
> That may be true for some schools. But there are incoming students who 
> simply don't belong, for a variety of reasons. I don't think it serves 
> those students to string them along with both the school and the student 
> pretending they can hack the material.
>
> Have you ever watched the tryouts on the TV show "So You Think You Can 
> Dance"? They have some applicants who clearly just don't belong there. 
> They are often asked if they've had training, and they'll say they've had 
> 5 years of dance training. They cry when told by the judges that they have 
> no talent.
>
> Apparently, none of their instructors told them this, they just continued 
> to take the tuition money and compliment the student on how well he's 
> doing.
>
> It's like me going to basketball camp. I will never, ever be a good 
> basketball player, no matter how hard I try or how much coaching I get. It 
> will never happen. For a coach not to tell me this is doing me a grave 
> disservice, because I should be expending effort at something I can 
> succeed at.
>
> Of course, if I then choose to take basketball anyway because I just love 
> the game, that's fine, too. But it would be unreasonable of me to expect a 
> top coach to be willing to coach me, even if I paid him $$$. He'll want to 
> be coaching people who can succeed at basketball.

See that's the thing, there's that middle-ground of sensibility right there 
that schools just won't go near. If they want to have a chat with someone 
about whether they think they're really on the right path, great. All 
problems solved. But instead they just play these bullshit games behind the 
students backs.