Shortage of Engineers in the USA Explained - Yep, Sounds About Right. : Wed, 28 Sep 2005

Douglas Kern at Tech Central Station says that the U.S. has a shortage of engineers because there just aren't enough able teachers at the uni level. He relates his experience as an engineering student forced to learn advanced mathematical and scientific concepts from TA's and profs who would rather he not ask them to explain anything.

This one hits close to home. I would add to Kern's commentary with thoughts from my own experiences: I come from a University here in central IL where if enough mediocre students complained to the department about how "hard" a class was, the powers that be made sure to dumb it down enough to shut all the whiners up, lest they come back with their loud, bitchy, checkbook-bearing parents. This of course created an academic environment that rewards self-rightous, whiney, mediocre students. This also drove out the faculty members who strove to teach advanced concepts, leaving SOL all students who were geeked about actually learning neat advanced stuff.
So I didn't have the same experience Kern did. In fact I stayed and graduated. I did not however learn as much as one would've hoped during my tenure there, other than the stuff I did as independant research projects.
My conclusion at this point is that universities should hold their professors and their students to high standards of performance (and not be afraid of dumping either for displaying ridiculously low aptitude), otherwise they will just keep on blowing off those who show the most promise. --CG   Source: http://www.uhacc.org/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi

Posted by mongoose, at 21:37 | permanent link | comments