Uneducated youth. Responses of a part-time teacher
On September 30, aleshqqa1337 posted a sincere and generally correct post, "Uneducated Youth . " I realized that I can not help but answer. I wrote a comment, wrote ... And in the end I decided to write a post.
Briefly about myself (this is important): I work as a research programmer in the field of information security. Now in a large Russian company, before that in two banks, before that in a small innovative information security company. I have been teaching at Bauman Moscow State Technical University for more than three years ... And I also saw a lot of things.
Nevertheless, the "angle of view" of aleshqqa1337 is a little incorrect in my opinion. This article was not written for criticism, but rather in order to complement the picture of what is generally happening with technical education in Russia.
Let's start from afar
I don’t want to agitate anyone for the Soviet regime, it’s not about politics, but in the USSR:
- There was, although in many ways a wretched, but more independent economy
- This economy required a large number of personnel, including intellectual ones.
This does not mean that in modern Russia everything is bad. Just a lot of sectors of the economy, including technical, have sagged a lot. There are a lot of departments in Baumanka that are not objectively in demand economically. What to do with teachers? To fire? Retrain? This is a sick and not idle question ...
What about Russian IT? In the dashing 90s, few people from IT went specifically to teaching. And even now, if they do, it’s either because there is no where else to go; either because of the combination of science and education (“knights of science”) or as I am people from the industry who read students once a week in the evenings and sow the good and the eternal.
So, there are three types of teachers:
- “knights of science” - there are very few of them, but they still exist. Including among the young. They need to be entered in the red book and protected
- full-time teachers. - unfortunately their level is falling strongly and strongly. This is a system problem.
- part-time teachers. - they exist, but there is no policy of attracting and retaining them (more on this below).
About salaries
Suppose someone really wants to teach.
Take a look. I work for 0.1 bet and get 2000 rubles. Therefore, if I would work to the full, I would get 20,000. If I am not a Muscovite and I need to rent an apartment for the conditional 35,000, then in order to live and eat buckwheat porridge I need to work at two rates. Therefore, without the title of Ph.D. It’s not possible to live at all. Hence another problem - the subsidence of domestic science, because 95% of the candidate works are simply terrible (the figure is not taken from the head. Only 1/20 really is at least something of itself). And all turn a blind eye to it. Hence the ordinary cynicism of the so-called "people from science" (not to be confused with the "knights of science")
I understand that man is not fed with bread alone. But for everything there are limits. If the stomach sticks to the ribs - not before teaching
About the financing method
We return to the country of advice. Previously, they allocated money to the flow . Thus, when expelling a student, it was not necessary for anyone to reduce bonuses. In modern Russia, money is allocated to a student. And very good, depending on the university, the department is 50-150 thousand rubles per nose!
That is why deduction is an extreme measure even at MSTU ... As a result, education is sagging.
About the policy for part-time teachers
But she is not! Well, not at all. For example, I have been teaching for three years and regularly put couples somewhere at one o’clock in the afternoon. I go to the department (asking for leave from work) and ask for a change. With a creak, scandals - change. And this continues from year to year. Why do this? One of my acquaintances, a successful startup, was just tired and waved his hand. As a result, the department lost a talented person from the industry, who brought more than one student to people.
They say that in the new university the Moscow Polytechnic University , allegedly, a different policy. I don’t know - wait and see.
About the Knights of Science
It is these people who provide fundamental education. Guys, believe me - you need it. But if you are a student, not now. At first you will be a June, then a middle ... And then it turns out that without fundamental knowledge you will be an eternal middle ...
Unfortunately, this kind of people, as I already wrote, is vanishingly small. Most of the Ph.D. - charlatans, they "strangle" and, let’s without pharisaism, hate talented, capable young scientists. Just like Karl Marx is a class enemy.
About bureaucracy
On the example of MSTU. Since the resignation of IB Fyodorov, “bureaucratic processes” have been going on as rector of the MSTU in Bauman. You can write a book about this, but speaking on your fingers, bureaucrats simply squeeze the "knights of science" to the sidelines. It is impossible to objectively understand this process from the outside - and there is a Ph.D. and a Ph.D.
Comes to funny. If 5 years ago it was possible to go into the classroom and gather students on bird rights and hold an additional seminar, now you need to coordinate everything and everywhere. This seems to be correct. But in practice, it just turns into a mournful masquerade and I have already reconciled. Talented students just call to visit me at work, or we meet in a cafe - and work.
In other universities, differently? I will answer in Stanislavsky: "I do not believe!"
On the humiliation of the knights of science
To raise the wisdom of life (now it is fashionable to call soft skills) he has been to bureaucratic formal gatherings more than once. They were systematically and regularly humiliated by the "knights of science." They said that they teach incorrectly, conduct exams incorrectly, underestimate grades, are demanding of excellent students, etc. etc. In practice, it’s just regular cunning assault so that the level of power of the “knights of science” is reduced to zero and thereby strengthen the power of the “bureaucracy”.
This has nothing to do with the educational process? No, it does. This is the backstage. And it is the "bureaucracy" that forms the policy
Loss of culture
I thought for a long time whether to write this paragraph or not ... I drank coffee and decided to write. I understand that many readers will meet my point of view "with hostility", but nevertheless - we are gradually losing culture, including in IT.
For example, we replace Russian words with foreign ones where it is not needed. I am not against the word “monitoring” or the word “mitap”, as they have no analogues. Not even against the words "June" and "Middle", although they can find an analogue. But a week ago I heard "multi-thread programming" instead of "multi-thread" and a little depressed ...
We reconciled with the introduction into the Russian language of the expressions “raise skills”, “start commit”, “tighten the module”, “hard-coded program”, etc.
There is a point of view that speech does not affect the professional level. Personally, I believe that this is not so.
What to do?
We omit the question "who is to blame" - let us leave it to historians and sociologists and ask a more important question for the future of the country: what to do?
I will express my (of course, subjective) point of view.
The future is for the following types of interactions:
- Schools from companies. For example, Yandex SHAD
- Nonprofit educational organizations. For example MoscowPython
- A system like in Star Wars: master -> padawan. The teacher is the student.
- Free sites for educational and / or professional content. For example Habr
What will happen to classical education? What is very important (a military man, for example) will certainly survive and remain. The rest will change a lot and in fact it will become a vinaigrette of the above four points, only at public expense.
What should students do?
Saving the drowning - the work of the drowning
Cruel, I agree.
But nothing else. Self-education, reading good books; meeting with specialists; visiting meet-ups.
Nobody, anywhere, will teach you anything. Nobody will take you as a piece of unprocessed clay and make you a vase. You yourself must learn, yourself to look for where, what and from whom you can get useful.
Entering IT is difficult - but possible. All in your hands.
Good luck to you guys!