> [Younger profs] think they can teach every student. Very few (none?) of the older ones.
I buy that argument, but I would ask: if they can only teach some of the students, then are they teaching the right ones? Bess's example in the article suggests the answer is "no".
It is easy to "teach" only the students who don't need to be taught, and pat yourself on the back for your success. The students who sink are a mixture of people who are going to sink no matter what, and people who are only sinking because the teacher isn't giving them what they need. The students who swim are a mixture of people who have the right background to take advantage of what is being taught, and people who already know enough to not need to be taught (either by knowing the material already, or by being far enough along to pick it up along the way when working on the next step).
It sounds like professors today only care about swimmers, not sinkers. They would produce more value by ignoring some of the swimmers and paying attention to some of the sinkers. (Not saying this is possible within the current system, just that it would be better.) If your goal is to fill up a bucket, you will fail if either the bucket has a hole in it, or if it's already full.
I buy that argument, but I would ask: if they can only teach some of the students, then are they teaching the right ones? Bess's example in the article suggests the answer is "no".
It is easy to "teach" only the students who don't need to be taught, and pat yourself on the back for your success. The students who sink are a mixture of people who are going to sink no matter what, and people who are only sinking because the teacher isn't giving them what they need. The students who swim are a mixture of people who have the right background to take advantage of what is being taught, and people who already know enough to not need to be taught (either by knowing the material already, or by being far enough along to pick it up along the way when working on the next step).
It sounds like professors today only care about swimmers, not sinkers. They would produce more value by ignoring some of the swimmers and paying attention to some of the sinkers. (Not saying this is possible within the current system, just that it would be better.) If your goal is to fill up a bucket, you will fail if either the bucket has a hole in it, or if it's already full.