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"This is not an educational system problem, this is a societal problem. What am I supposed to do? Keep standards high and fail them all?"
(hilariusbookbinder.substack.com)
this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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I wrote a long, insulting response to that post. I think I manged to turn it down a bit. Ultimately I too, am sad.
This prof is old. Sharing slides was a novelty 25 years ago. It became normal, 15 years ago. If you still don't think you have to do it in 2025, there is nothing to do except shrug and walk away. Which people do. Taking notes on a laptop is normal. End of discussion. There is nothing "magic" about handwriting notes. They get lost, they can't be backed up, they take up space, they can't be shared, etc..
They are suggesting people buy 100$ of books for one course, unironically. They think that's cheap.
No, it is your fault. You have remained at the technological and societal level of 40-50 years ago. Being a professor is a position of intellectual leadership, you're supposed to go with the times, and maximize the tools at your disposal to improve your craft and the lives and yourself and your students. Not doing that, is a massive failure.
Yes. Obviously. What you should do is retire and make way.
All of that doesn't mean that the students aren't also dumber than 40-50 years ago or that smartphones aren't also bad for people.
But screw this person and their attitude.
Tldr; You completely missed the author's point, which only reinforces his point that students are illiterate and don't read. All you did is quibble with nitpicks like $100 of books not being cheap. He highlights students are intellectually stunted when they get to college and how they view college as purely transactional.
Factually incorrect: blog analysis with journal references. I'm not an expert in this domain, so I struggle to assess the quality of the meta analysis; however, the most conservative statement that can be made supported by the evidence is:
"There seems to be a noticeable improvement in performance associated with hand written notes but it may be partially or completely context or person dependent to see those benefits."
This is supported by the general knowledge that taking the time necessary to write the note helps reinforce the connection and memory recall.
A significant number of professors are intellectual leaders by performing research. That's their job. Students regularly do not recognize that the primary function of academic research university professors is not to educate - it's to develop new knowledge.
There is no official education training that professors go through. But good universities will have some support structures for it (and I don't have experience at teaching focused colleges). A good educator will spark curiosity, excitement, and wonder. Being a good educator is not necessary for being a good professor.
Students must take ownership for their own interests and actions. Students don't care about the material. Students will do the bare minimum to get the grade and regularly do so by cheating, copying, and denying fellow students study materials from previous quarters because it gives them an edge in classes graded on a curve.
Students will use LLMs to write essays with no editing and then argue with you about it when you fail them for cheating. Students will write everything they know about related to a test question and get mad when their shotgun approach loses them points - because summarizing a chapter in answering a specific question shows they do not comprehend the material. Students are hyper results oriented and the only purpose for college is because you were told to do it to get a job and you want a job.
It is not our job to entertain. It is our job to make new knowledge and educate to the best we can, but I'd students don't come to the table jumping around like {CURRENT_TOP_TIKTOK} to be entertaining isn't going to fix things.
The Titanic is still sinking because college isn't about becoming educated.
Ya all are hella out of my league on the topic, just wanted to slightly butt in as someone who failed uni.
I blamed professors for their outdated approach. Especially the long, dry lectures...oh my god these were terrible. Because I was doing them wrong. All my years at school we were taught to write down everything, which doesn't work in uni. So yeah, first fail. Best part, in high school there were two professors who valiantly fought to teach us how to take notes. Mostly failed.
Second fail is...I've gone there because everyone was pushing me to go there. I wasn't ready. Had no passion, no motivation, no target. I wondered how certain people were doing better than everyone else - only after I fixed my mental health I noticed that these people had some target. They worked towards something specific - wanted to advance in one of the fields, or were curious about topic, and thus things came easier to them. Most of us were...more like jellyfish. We were there, wherever current takes us we go, most folk had barely any or none at all idea what they want except "finish studies". God how it hurts to look at all the opportunities I not only didn't take, but didn't even notice...
Overall, primary, middle and high school are made for people to flow with the current and find out what interests them. To take them through science. But uni seems more like a freelance guide on a tour. You need to know what you wanna do or see first, guide will then help you get most out of it.
But I don't believe it's students fault for failing either. Why the hell are people funelled so hard to uni? Most folk this age don't know shit yet, are still trying things out. Were I to take two year pause between high school and uni, I may have not drifted.
So it is scientifically proven. Except for the big exception that IT DEPENDS. So it's not actually proven.
I...
This is why I am sad.
Are you being serious, here? Do you understand the problem with the argument you made here and with how you made it?
""Tldr; You completely missed the author’s point, which only reinforces his point that students are illiterate and don’t read.""
Well, do you? Read this again.
Did I, at any point, suggest that students shouldn't take notes? Because I don't think I did. I think I said
"Taking notes on a laptop is normal."
What am I supposed to do with this whole thread? After that garbage tier argument, why would I take anything you say seriously?
Appeals to authority work, when I can see, understand and recognize that you are capable in your subject matter and worth listening to and learning from. What you demonstrate, is that you don't give shit about different perspectives, different tools, AND you don't hold yourself to the same standard of demanding attention to detail.
It literally legally isn't in my country, in my country teaching comes first, but I recognize that this may be different depending on the country.
I did not claim it was scientifically proven. I claimed the evidence contradicts your implication that electronic note taking is functionally equivalent to note taking. (i.e. handwriting notes aren't magic)
I was attempting to somewhat steelman your argument by using the nuance and complexity that often comes with research to show that there are caveats. You have an out. You could still be right. I expected someone named it_depends_man would be able to appreciate my nuanced approach. Please don't mistake my embrace of the ambiguity intrinsic to scientific research and progress (things are rarely proven outside of mathematics anyway) as logical inconsitency.
If there are, however, big logical gaps please do point those out. I genuinely would love to learn how I am wrong or ways to improve the way I reason.
No. I didn't say you said that either. I take notes electronically and physically. I understand the use cases of both. I never said don't use a laptop or electronic notes.
Cool! Legitimately. However, the author of the article is clearly from an American University so we need to discuss from that context.
Country context is critical because the claims he makes or issues he brings up may not be applicable to every country's student body.
Please don't be sad. I assure you I'm not stupid and my critical thinking is above average - if only just barely. I'm not appealing to my authority. I'm appealing to the authority of scientific literature. Where I freely admit I'm not equipped to robustly get into a debate about the scientific rigor of an individual study.
Yes. I know. That's my point. This is what that looks like:
That source you linked isn't publicly accessible. You are supporting your perspective and this particular point, with a source I can't even read. That is the authority I'm supposed to respect? We're not even getting into the validity of the actual point!
A system that behaves this way, can't be interacted with. And not because I don't want to and not necessarily because I'm incapable of doing it (illiterate, don't read), we won't find that out in this case.
And then there is this professor who keeps wondering what's wrong and "no of course he's not sharing his slides".