Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The best schools: do they teach any better or simply ruin fewer students?

Ah, here is yet another list of the best schools (this one is about computer science). I didn’t attend any of these as I could not afford it. Rich kids go to these schools. Their rich parents’ extraordinary tuition checks pay for scholarships for the poorer and smarter others who attend.

Do these better schools teach any better? I doubt it. Math is math. History is history. Java and those other programming languages…well, you can learn them in a free online course.

How is it that the graduates of these “better schools” do better than the graduates of those lesser schools (like the ones I attended)?

Here is a thought: the students at the better schools know more when they arrive. The students either went to expensive private schools all their lives or they were poor but actually talented.

The better schools start with brighter students. Still, there are bright students attending the lesser schools. What happens?

Here is another thought: the better schools don’t ruin as many bright students as the lesser schools.

Consultant and author Jerry Weinberg has this saying (apologies as I can’t remember it exactly, so here is a bad paraphrase) regarding his goal as a teacher:

the students leave class not being less interested in the topic as when they arrived.

Paraphrase of the paraphrase:

he doesn’t ruin the student.

Here is a tip for the lesser schools: learn how you ruin students and stop doing those things.