[ExI] jarring change

[William Flynn Wallace]

Just a thought:  at the expensive universities it would be worth it a lot
more if the world's greatest professors would actually teach classes, even
at the intro level.  But no, TAs do all that or Assistant Profs.  Are the
greatest teachers at Cal Tech or Yale etc.?  Very likely yes - but they
don't teach - just a few, very few grad students, and those mostly because
they help with the big prof's research program.

bill w

On Sun, Sep 13, 2020 at 2:43 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
> >...> On Behalf Of Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat
> Subject: Re: [ExI] jarring change
>
> On Sun, Sep 13, 2020 at 5:50 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> >
> >>... From here it looks like the Southern Baptist Church would take the
> honors:  dogma is set in stone...
> >
> >>... So you see, I have little experience outside the ivory tower.  I am
> anxious to see what people think about economics.   bill w
>
> >...There's also the issue that many people see higher education,
> especially
> from an ideological perspective, as very influential...To me, this seems so
> out of touch with the actual influence of the schools...
> Regards,  Dan
>
>
> Thanks Dan and BillW for the thought-provoking comments.
>
> I will only deal with what I originally had in mind with the question (I
> have a lot more in mind now (but time is limited today.))
>
> To me, the college professor with tenure on a nice campus is the greatest
> place to be in the world, for a hundred reasons: you get to stand in front
> of an attentive audience talking about stuff you know well, lots of
> attractive young people (which is a benefit even if you have nothing
> illegitimate in mind at all (and one would suppose even more a benefit if
> you do)) a nice, low-pressure interesting environment, fun activities
> everywhere; what better career is there?  OK chief photographer at the
> Playboy Mansion, but other than that... college professor is the best you
> do
> for interesting pleasant careers.
>
> People who have it made know they have it made.  They don't want things to
> change, and I understand.  If I were smart enough to get into that job, I
> wouldn't want change either.  I have a former college roommate who got his
> PhD from Purdue and has been a professor of engineering at our alma mater
> ever since, working his ass off for a pittance, and will flat out say it's
> the greatest life he could imagine and he is happier than a pig in slop.
> He
> means it and I believe him.
>
> Covid hands the university system a jarring change that none of them
> wanted,
> but I have known for a long time was going to happen eventually.  I didn't
> foresee that it would happen as a result of an epidemic, but I shoulda: the
> man after whom I named my own son invented calculus while home on
> university
> lockdown because of a plague epidemic in London.
>
> Consider USC.  The engineering training they dish out there is pretty
> similar at the undergrad level as it is at any state university (but costs
> a
> lotta lotta.)  The degree is more valuable of course, with its prestige,
> but
> the actual education at either place (at undergrad level) is pretty
> similar.
> All engineering students hafta master a pretty similar set of skills.
>
> The USC education has additional benefits however.  An engineering student
> can make contacts there with money people (the smart students and the rich
> students need each other.)
>
> Without that additional benefit... the USC education isn't worth the 75K a
> year.  Students might as well sit out the plague semesters and take classes
> at the local state U.
>
> spike
>
>
>
>
>
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