Amazing that those in education are the least able. However, since I attended a polytechnic university, all of my instructors were also working professionals.
My calculus teacher still runs the Mars missions at JPL! :)
Speaking as an engineer with a bachelors; in an employment world of cronyism, affirmative action, H1B visas, and social-over-technical skills, ability is VASTLY overrated.
A shame, really, that the social sciences are so low down on the scale, and have become a dump for people looking for "easy" subjects.
Thing is, doing good sociology is much harder than doing good physical science. In the physical sciences, you can repeatedly make experiments under carefully controlled conditions. Not so in sociology, where everything affects everything, and it's practically impossible to measure the effect of one variable on another without interference from the wider context.
Doing crap sociology, though, is much easier than doing crap physical science, and much easier to get away with too, as long as a sufficiently large number of ideological hacks like your research results. A brilliant sociologist would, I think, have a much higher likelihood of ending up unnoticed and have his work drowned out by noise.
I love Jeopardy and I've noticed time and time again that the best contestants are usually from either statistics, computer scientist or medical fields (one guy, after winning (he had a liberal arts career), changed his field to bio engineering). The worst contestants are ALWAYS the teachers. I mean, it is just PAINFUL to watch them fail at these incredibly easy clues. Once, there was even a category that was all about calculus (the clue interchanged parentheses, etc) and time would run out on every single one because the teachers couldn't do the math in the time required or skipped the category completely. And these are the people teaching children today? Sad.
There is some truth to this chart, but let us remember, this for purely academic performance.
Look at how many people with STEM Phd's or degrees still voted for a dope like Obama or Romney. This group is also poorly knowledgeable about economics or history.
Agricultural and animal science majors are pretty cool. The women to, and plus they may know how to raise an animal for food.
I've always seen that metric, how "top" academic nations recruit 100% of teachers from the top 1/3rd of college programs. So in turn, most teachers in Finland are in the top 10% intellectually in the country.
But my question is, that is that even optimal? The USA outproduces finland. Name a Finnish company.
Not to mention Europe champions virtuous laziness (government, academia, etc). Here, there's at least the notion of real work being good.
I'm perfectly happy with seeing our smartest study the subjects that make the most material difference. Let the suburban, upper middle class princesses who get through college on dad's dime just rot away at El Ed teachers, claiming they "make a difference". I don't even remember the names of half my teachers, but I sure do know who the CEO of Apple is, and how his company's products have enhanced my life.
Amazing that those in education are the least able. However, since I attended a polytechnic university, all of my instructors were also working professionals.
ReplyDeleteMy calculus teacher still runs the Mars missions at JPL! :)
I have degrees in both math and business. I am so confused where I fall here.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as an engineer with a bachelors; in an employment world of cronyism, affirmative action, H1B visas, and social-over-technical skills, ability is VASTLY overrated.
ReplyDeleteA shame, really, that the social sciences are so low down on the scale, and have become a dump for people looking for "easy" subjects.
ReplyDeleteThing is, doing good sociology is much harder than doing good physical science. In the physical sciences, you can repeatedly make experiments under carefully controlled conditions. Not so in sociology, where everything affects everything, and it's practically impossible to measure the effect of one variable on another without interference from the wider context.
Doing crap sociology, though, is much easier than doing crap physical science, and much easier to get away with too, as long as a sufficiently large number of ideological hacks like your research results. A brilliant sociologist would, I think, have a much higher likelihood of ending up unnoticed and have his work drowned out by noise.
At least the business majors are learning something practical.
ReplyDeleteCaltech Jet Propulsion Lab?
ReplyDeleteI love Jeopardy and I've noticed time and time again that the best contestants are usually from either statistics, computer scientist or medical fields (one guy, after winning (he had a liberal arts career), changed his field to bio engineering). The worst contestants are ALWAYS the teachers. I mean, it is just PAINFUL to watch them fail at these incredibly easy clues. Once, there was even a category that was all about calculus (the clue interchanged parentheses, etc) and time would run out on every single one because the teachers couldn't do the math in the time required or skipped the category completely. And these are the people teaching children today? Sad.
ReplyDeleteThere is some truth to this chart, but let us remember, this for purely academic performance.
ReplyDeleteLook at how many people with STEM Phd's or degrees still voted for a dope like Obama or Romney. This group is also poorly knowledgeable about economics or history.
Agricultural and animal science majors are pretty cool. The women to, and plus they may know how to raise an animal for food.
I've always seen that metric, how "top" academic nations recruit 100% of teachers from the top 1/3rd of college programs. So in turn, most teachers in Finland are in the top 10% intellectually in the country.
ReplyDeleteBut my question is, that is that even optimal? The USA outproduces finland. Name a Finnish company.
Not to mention Europe champions virtuous laziness (government, academia, etc). Here, there's at least the notion of real work being good.
I'm perfectly happy with seeing our smartest study the subjects that make the most material difference. Let the suburban, upper middle class princesses who get through college on dad's dime just rot away at El Ed teachers, claiming they "make a difference". I don't even remember the names of half my teachers, but I sure do know who the CEO of Apple is, and how his company's products have enhanced my life.