What Scala?

[Max Samukha]

On Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:32:20 -0700, Andrei Alexandrescu
<SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:

>Georg Wrede wrote:
>> dsimcha wrote:
>>> == Quote from Walter Bright (newshound1 at digitalmars.com)'s article
>>>> Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>>>>> If there's one thing my
>>>>> school experience taught me, it's that teachers are only interested in
>>>>> focusing on the low-to-mid-range students.
>>>> That wasn't my college experience at all (Caltech). I was a
>>>> low-to-mid-range student there
>>>
>>> ...Which kind of proves the point that the way knowledge/learning in 
>>> college is
>>> measured is pretty flawed in that it doesn't predict who will be 
>>> successful
>>> afterword.  I just finished undergrad a couple years ago and I feel 
>>> that the kinds
>>> of multiple choice exams you get in huge lecture-based classes are 
>>> good at testing
>>> rote memorization and superficial understanding and the ability to get 
>>> inside the
>>> professor's head, where as what's important is the ability to take 
>>> your knowledge
>>> and apply it to something useful or use it to create more knowledge.
>> 
>> Yes, one gets the impression that those who do well in exams simply 
>> store the stuff in another way in their head. Feels like they've 
>> developed methods to store it for easy retrieval and rote memorization, 
>> instead of ever trying to internalize the essence of it. (Sure, some 
>> kids can manage both, but I wasn't one of them.)
>> 
>> But then, 20 years afterward, ask the three starry eyed ones, what the 
>> price will be if there is first a 10% price hike and then you get a 10% 
>> rebate. Since they can't remember the formula by heart anymore, they're 
>> at a loss with this one. But what does it matter, they've got good 
>> secure jobs, a nice family and a car as good as their neighbor.
>> 
>> OTOH, to make things really happen, we need the other kind of guys. 
>> Those of us who want to understand. They're the ones who advance the 
>> state of the art, and without that, we'd still be traveling on steam 
>> trains. I just wish there were more schools and pedagogic knowledge (and 
>> good teachers, of course) to make things interesting and fun for us 
>> others. But without that, many students get by with so-so grades, having 
>> invested only 10% of their effort into it. I know I did. What a waste.
>
>I don't buy 10% of this, after another 10% rebate. I'm not sure you 
>meant it that way, but it looks quite narcissistic. Not only the kind of 
>people who operate like you push humankind towards progress.
>
>We all know stories of lousy-student rise to genius. John Backus, Thomas 
>Alva Edison, Einstein... You know why? Because they're spectacular 
>stories. There have been plenty of geniuses who also happened to be good 
>students, but nobody cares for that detail because it's expected and 
>therefore uninformative.
>
>And if anyone is pissed about the quality of higher education in the US, 
>they'll have to move to Mars. US has the best in the world.
>
>
>Andrei

My cat said that might be true.