Any Teachers on Slashdot?

Traxton1 asks: "I am a student in a community college, and I spent all day in a hiring committee for a new Computer Science faculty member. I was wondering if there are many teachers who hang around on Slashdot. One of the people we interviewed had a power point presentation that didn't display correctly, and he said it was because he was using Star Office. I was shocked that someone who wasn't in the tech sector used anything beside Windows. My C++ teacher actually said that if we used anything beside Visual C++ he wouldn't even try to help us compile.I was just curious to know if people who really are very tech-savvy desire to be teachers at all. Oh, one more thing: they tried hiring for this position 2 years ago and got 3 applicants, and none of them qualified for the job." They say teaching is an "honorable profession" and I believe every word if it. If only they got paid more, maybe there would be more quality applicants across all subjects.

Comments

Re:the usual suspects

[Perdo]

Name one teacher who was teaching at the time that they made the discovery that earned them a Nobel Prize. They teach afterwards but not before.

SO, teachers, by the nature of passing on information that is already known CAN NOT be cutting edge.

The top 10% might be capable of advancing their fields. 90% cannot advance their field so they end up teaching. If they could advance their field, they would be doing it. Keep in mind, only 3% of all teachers are professors. The rest rule their petty domains, classrooms in primary and secondary schools across the nation.

They are teachers because of the perceived sense of power they derive because they know something their students do not. They seek that power because the real movers and shakers in their fields know something the teachers don't, and never will.

If you had a masters in business, why would you become an officer? To pay off student loans in return for 6 years of service minimum? If you can't make $130,000 in 6 years as an MBA, you must be incredibly bad in your field. Keep in mind only 1% of Officers are fighter pilots. The rest are simply inferior in their field.

The typical manager has no grasp of the technology the people he manages are using. If he had a grasp of technology, he would not seek to move into management. The term has been labeled "fuck up, move up." put the unskilled person in a place where they can do the least damage. Contrary to popular belief, even the worst manager cannot hinder a technical person who really shines. A manager can certainly ride on the success of his team, and will seek to do so, lacking the competence to shine themselves.

SO, as a 90% true rule, people incompetent in their fields, end up as teachers, military officers and managers.

90% is more than enough for me to make a blanket statement. Unlike the your "hey, I know this guy who is a complete renaissance man who is brilliant beyond measure and is an fighter pilot and has a ten inch penis". He represents a tiny fraction, of the population. There may be only 1000 people on the entire planet of 6 billion people with that kind of resume.

I will further guess that there may be perhaps 1000 people capable of writing a textbook on programming that is as revered as "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" putting Hal Abelson and Jerry Sussman also outside the scope of my blanket statement.

In other words, you picked the worst examples imaginable. Meaning, you too are inadequate. Since you are defending teachers and have shown yourself inadequate in a way that teachers often are, citing poor examples, you must be a teacher, and therefore biased.

Your opinion means nothing in this discussion.

Re:What do you define as a teacher?

[WINSTANLEY]

Is the kid on home page for HMC Warren from Buffy TVS. Sure looks like him.