# Yet more idiocy in education... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 3, 2004, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-idiocy-in-education/277982 "2004-12-03T23:17:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-idiocy-in-education/277982/121 "2004-12-14T21:43:39Z")
> [@](#): > > **eponymous** said: > It’s perfectly clear to me that what I teach has no intrinsic value (at least with respect to their educational and career aspirations). Or rather, that they have a problem with how a particular instution sets policy with respect to cheating and plagerism, and how that translates into how an instructor may teach a class. Maybe you can explain to me how ‘History of Russia, 1861 to 1917’ has made me a better computer engineer. I actually put effort into that class, quite a lot of it, read a bunch of books, wrote a bunch of papers, and somehow managed to understand Dr. Karapinka’s extremely thick accent and thousand words a second speech. But I’ll be damned if I can figure out how knowing that this was the Tsarist period helped me out with digital logic. Ethics was actually helpful. Principles of not designing stuff that harms people, studying engineering disasters and what could’ve been done to prevent harm to people. If only those professors had put as much effort into their class (the course had two professors) as Dr. Karapinka did. ---
**Author:** ![Manatee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-idiocy-in-education/277982/122 "2004-12-14T23:19:51Z")
> [@catsix](#): > > Maybe you can explain to me how ‘History of Russia, 1861 to 1917’ has made me a better computer engineer. As someone who teaches in the humanities, I’d argue that it’s made you a better computer engineer by virtue of having made you a better human being. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-idiocy-in-education/277982/123 "2004-12-15T00:30:35Z")
The misconception of students-as-customers (a piss-poor analogy, if you ask me) probably comes from administrators who have gotten MBAs and then fancy themselves as CEOs, running campuses like businesses. The attitude trickles down, and before you know it, you’ve got students who really think the professors are their employees. It will be a sad day indeed if the administrations cave in to such “customers” and their demands and sense of entitlement. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-idiocy-in-education/277982/124 "2004-12-15T00:36:53Z")
I can assure you that my idea of teachers working for me does not come from a MBA nor becuase I am a CEO. It comes from the fact that I am PAYING for the teachers services. I not only pay for their service in teaching but to be graded on the skills that I acquire. The reason I pay to be graded is that I can then take these grades to a perspective employer as proof that I have mastered these skills. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-idiocy-in-education/277982/125 "2004-12-15T02:38:07Z")
> [@treis](#): > > I can assure you that my idea of teachers working for me does not come from a MBA nor becuase I am a CEO. It comes from the fact that I am PAYING for the teachers services. I not only pay for their service in teaching but to be graded on the skills that I acquire. The reason I pay to be graded is that I can then take these grades to a perspective employer as proof that I have mastered these skills. No dear, you are not paying the teachers. You are paying the registrar for the privilege of attending their institution. The instructors are payed by the state. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-idiocy-in-education/277982/126 "2004-12-15T02:39:34Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > No dear, you are not paying the teachers. You are paying the registrar for the privilege of attending their institution. The instructors are payed by the state. Unless, of course, you are attending a private college, in which case I got nothin’ for ya. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-idiocy-in-education/277982/127 "2004-12-15T18:54:26Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > Unless, of course, you are attending a private college, in which case I got nothin’ for ya. Grants, endowments and alumni fund drives. Tuition does not cover the entire cost of educating a student. And even if it did, you aren’t the only student in a class (or “customer”). Other students may wish their homework to be turned in and graded - for some people that may be the difference between a C and a B. A professor is not teaching to an individual, but teaching to a classroom, and most try their best to give students multiple methods of learning and showing competence - understanding that not everyone learns in the same way. Past proof of competency is not proof of current competency as most people forget over time. And there are few things that don’t benefit from more practice - writing being a skill most professional writers believe they must practice and hone. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-idiocy-in-education/277982/128 "2004-12-15T19:59:34Z")
> [@](#): > > **Manatee** said: > As someone who teaches in the humanities, I’d argue that it’s made you a better computer engineer by virtue of having made you a better human being. It made me a better human being? Being bored to tears regarding some point of history I have no interest in nor any reason to remember the details of made me a better human being? I guess I’m worse now, because I’ve forgotten everything but the name of the class and the professor who taught it. ---
**Author:** ![Manatee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-idiocy-in-education/277982/129 "2004-12-17T01:52:18Z")
> [@catsix](#): > > It made me a better human being? Being bored to tears regarding some point of history I have no interest in nor any reason to remember the details of made me a better human being? I guess I’m worse now, because I’ve forgotten everything but the name of the class and the professor who taught it. I have two answers, both of which will sound pissy and intended to be attacks. Neither condition is the case, but I’m not sure how else to phrase them. 1. Can you honestly say that you took a class in human nature and learned nothing about human beings? 2. If nothing else, the class was useful because it reinforced the rightness of your career/academic decisions. That is, if it bored you to tears, then at least you learned that history (or at least that era/period) is not for you and that your decision to pursue \_\_\_\_\_\_ was the right one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-more-idiocy-in-education/277982.md?page=6)