Interesting

From the Yale's math department's "Tips for Teachers" web page:

It is dangerous show your students that you are wasting your precious time teaching these ignorant fools.

Note the choice of words. It doesn't say "have your students think that"; it says "show."

Repeat to your students, colleagues and to yourself that you like to teach.

And maybe you will even start to believe it.

No wonder the really high-end departments have such a reputation for bad teaching.

Talent Shortage

From a WSJ article today...

Corporate America is desperate to find technical talent, prompting many to step up retention efforts, while making a mad dash to move higher paid research operations to China and India. It raises new debate about caps on visas for foreign workers and the need to attract more U.S. students to the careers in math and science.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the U.S. needs 135,000 new computer professionals a year, but its universities are producing only 49,000 computer science graduates annually. The agency also predicts the need for science and engineering graduates will grow 26% to 1.25 million by 2012. However, the number of graduates in those fields has remained relatively flat for two decades.

Typical

Kentucky is piloting a math program that that costs $300,000 per 30 students, owned and promoted by a contingent of politicians. The ridiculous cost is partly due to the required hardware and furniture purchases - "it's necessary to buy both the hardware and software because the software seems to interfere with other programs."

[Thanks to DVD for the link]