3 ms·

I agree with a lot of your comment, and I basically think large swathes of education are just fundamentally broken for a variety of unfortunate reasons. That s

by csa 6y ago

I agree with a lot of your comment, and I basically think large swathes of education are just fundamentally broken for a variety of unfortunate reasons. That said, I would like to answer this question: > Why are there still weeding-out classes? In majors that are oversubscribed (e.g., pre-med, CS, etc.), these classes weed out the people who like the idea of the major/career more than the actual work involved. Good weeder courses (and I think that these exist) allow later classes in the major path to be more focused on the capable and motivated learners rather than baby-sitting the less-capable and less-motivated. There are two reasons why this is desirable: 1. There is no way that a department could get through the same amount of material if they had to accommodate the less motivated and less capable in all of the courses. 2. Your department will get a reputation in the field for having students who are capable of X, Y, and Z. Typically, if someone can't make it in the weeder classes at their school and they still want to enter that career path, then maybe it's better to go to a less competitive school. This sounds elitist, and maybe it is, but that's the workaround in our current system.

jdmichal 6y ago
> 1. There is no way that a department could get through the same amount of material if they had to accommodate the less motivated and less capable in all of the courses. This is the high-school-ification of university, and it's part of the problem. This is not mandatory learning / babysitting. Just stop accommodating them. Every class just moves at the pace it needs to move at, and if they can't keep up, so be it.
- jdmichal 6y ago
  For my own notes into posterity, on further reflection, maybe the schools aren't accommodating. Maybe weed-out classes are hard because they're just moving at the pace they need to move at. But since they tend to be foundational classes, they have a lot of area to cover and so move relatively fast.
  - csa 6y ago
    This summary captures the intent of my comment accurately. I will add that the follow up classes can also move more aggressively since the weaker students have been culled by the required weeder course.

by csa 6y ago

jdmichal 6y ago

> 1. There is no way that a department could get through the same amount of material if they had to accommodate the less motivated and less capable in all of the courses. This is the high-school-ification of university, and it's part of the problem. This is not mandatory learning / babysitting. Just stop accommodating them. Every class just moves at the pace it needs to move at, and if they can't keep up, so be it.

jdmichal 6y ago
For my own notes into posterity, on further reflection, maybe the schools aren't accommodating. Maybe weed-out classes are hard because they're just moving at the pace they need to move at. But since they tend to be foundational classes, they have a lot of area to cover and so move relatively fast.
- csa 6y ago
  This summary captures the intent of my comment accurately. I will add that the follow up classes can also move more aggressively since the weaker students have been culled by the required weeder course.