[Leica] RE: world press winners 2006

[puff11 at comcast.net (Norm Aubin)]

B.D. - 

I do agree, if one is taking a photography class because one is interested
in the subject, or it's germane to one's studies, one might be expected to
have some basic knowledge of the subject.  Likewise when I've taken classes
that were filler subjects, satisfying some school requirement to take
additional classes by way of rounding us out - I sometimes took classes in
subjects that I had no idea about.  For example, my major was numerical
analysis, and I took a class in field survey techniques in Archeology, but I
sure didn't know much about it then! 

When I've had overflow in my classes, I usually had to make the cut based on
attitude or some other insubstantial attribute.  Since safety is foremost,
we usually had no choice but to cut the class sizes, so we had to resolve
this by trying to figure out ('guess'), usually talking with them to
determine who was there because they had a real desire and who was there
because they were filling time.  Usually it was the mid-aged males who were
convinced that they had genetic knowledge built in, so they didn't really
need this, and so for us they were the hardest to train, and also the most
likely to be cut.  I hate to generalize that way, but that was my
experience.  I was curious as to how you did the class size reductions,
that's all.

As to the other subject, well, my experience is similar to Don's (as he
noted in his e-mail below).  My elder son is back from his travels to exotic
lands, and now enrolled in college, and I know from meeting his buddies and
his fellow students, that they're an intelligent and engaged group of
people.  They are interested in getting an education, they're interested in
the world around them, and they're learning at a very astonishing rate.  I
suspect that since many of them spend time in front of a computer, either
reading or writing e-mail, or web sites (along with games), that they do a
fair bit of reading per se, although perhaps not novels and classic works.
I also know that my children were raised as readers, and that has stuck with
them through the years.  I guess I just happen to think highly of this
'next' generation; I am confident that they will do far better at solving
the messes their parents have created than their parents have.

Thanks for sharing.

Best of light,
Norm

> Message: 21
> Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 7:40:51 -0500
> From: "B. D. Colen" <bd_colen@harvard.edu>
> Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: world press winners 2006
> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Message-ID: <1049-SnapperMsg4EA12C31C014DD59@[70.194.39.234]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> 
> One, Norm, not only are the kids I teach light years beyond me in the 
> things technical to which you refer, they are flat out 
> brilliant in terms 
                        <SNIP>
> 
> All that said, I am far less sanquine than you about this 
> generation. I saw 
> a new study yesterday indicating that 18 to I believe 29 year olds on 
> average read - reading of any tpe - on average of 4 min per 
> day. I'm glad 
> they can modify cars, but...
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 25
> Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 09:10:09 -0500
> From: Don Dory <don.dory@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: world press winners 2006
> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> B.D.,
> I asked that as my experience has been completely different.  
> My daughters
> crowd is just a notch down from the MIT students.  They are 
                        <SNIP>
> 
> I guess that what I am saying is that there are at least some 
> of the rising
> generation that embody the best of what we want our children 
> to be, smart,
> caring, involved, and patient with their old geezer parents. :)
> 
> Don
> don.dory@gmail.com

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