How the students are, smart, and it’s still not calculated by the grades they made in school, the theory, combined with the applications here, and the courses needed to, catch up to the times too! Off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
My friend LINED me the article of the “Lain-Flats”, expressing his disappointment of the younger generations, this was similar to the worries over the “strawberries” from awhile, ago. I was, doubtful of, these sorts of, stereotypes, I’d bumped into a young school instructor, and his observation, is worth, considering.
He’d told me, that he read a document from more than twenty years ago, on the notes of the school instructors, discussing the goings-on in their classroom in time, and, there were, the expressions of “students’ levels are declining by the year”, at the time, everybody is worried, that the students are not going to be as studious or hardworking as they used to be. Come back to now, he’d, heard similar expressions from his coworkers too, it’s like, the younger generations are, sinking down into the abyss deeper, and deeper, quicker and quicker by the year too, the adults are all, worried. But he’d not believed that this was son, and posed an example.
The instructor teaches “linear algebra” in the university level, this is a basic math course. His evaluation of his students is, that on the skills front, the students fared worse than before, but, they are quite, active, enthusiastic of their own, learning. He is a hardworking professor, other than focusing on teaching, he’d, become the T.A. for his classes too, and, set up a whole day, where he just, answered the questions the students have for his, courses, he’d hoped, that through the personal interactions he’d shared with the students, he can help them resolve the problems that they’re, having in his class. Some of his students weren’t from the science, engineering majors, with a diverse level of skill set, and although, they posed similar questions, but, there were, the items that they couldn’t quite understand, and he’d, personalized his responses to the students individually, helping them to understand the problems they may have.
He’d summed up, that he didn’t know how to define “the level of understanding of his students”, and, shouldn’t the drive to learn be included in the assessments? He has student who’s not an engineering or math major, toward students like this one, he’d believed, that he only needed to have the basic levels of understanding in courses like the one he’s teaching, there’s no need to go into depth. But the student told him, that if he wanted to understand A.I., then, linear algebra would be the prerequisite. Later, as this particular student is working in his graduate studies, once he’d come to have a chat, thanked him for teaching him the drive to find the proofs of things, that it’d helped him later on in his, studies. I was, deeply moved by how hard he’d, worked with his students, everything that the professor has to offer, the students can, feel it, whether or not the students tell you, it’s, a successful, passing of the, torch.
In my decades’ worth of teaching, I’d often heard the worries of my friends, of how the students’ level of understanding is, dropping down lower. I’d always told them, it’s not that they’re, dropping in their level of understanding, it’s the “professors who’d gotten, smarter”. When someone teaches a course for a whole decade, s/he would become, completely familiar with the topics, and, would easily misjudge the materials for being, too, simple, and, would misjudge that the students are becoming, dumber. I would suggested these professors, to do the courses experimentally, to take a non-math subject course with their students together, then, they will, gain a, different understanding.
If the instructors can’t choose their students, then, they would have the obligations to know the students well. To help the students get ready to learn the subjects, to move forward a little, then, the professor had, succeeded.
So, this is on the values of knowledge acquisition, the students aren’t getting smarter, the professors aren’t getting, dumber, or vice versa. It’s all due to the differences of generations, like how the kids these days, they’re, agile with the A.I. technologies, with the older generations using the computing methods by hand or their own minds, and, it’s not that which way is better than the other, they’re both with the pros and the, cons, and, as educators, you must, know, that there’s no smarter or dumber of your students, but in how they learn, and, because a student can’t understand the material in a certain subject area, that doesn’t mean that the student can’t perform outstandingly in another subject. Everybody has something s/he is, good at, it’s just if you’re willing to take the time, to discover what someone is, good at that will, make the, greatest, difference.
Mirroring the World 