Re: Kindness

[Andy Askey <askeya@res.raytheon.com>]

I haven't followed all the posts in this thread, but I just can't help
but put in my opinion here.

Suppose the poster was a student attempting to get the answer to some
assigned question.  So what?  What is the difference if a student reads
the answer in a book, a man page, or from a newsgroup?  The goal of the
student (and the teacher, I hope) is that the student learns from the
homework.  One thing I find lacking in the education system of today is
that it does not prepare a graduate for the working world.  Once a
student becomes a member of some Software Engineering department, he/she
will loose points for wasting time figuring out something that is
available by questioning an experience coworker.  Part of the
educational process should be to teach how to complete a task in the
most efficient manner.  No one ever got a promoting rediscovering
something that is common knowledge through the industry.  But plenty
succeed by applying the knowledge of others to develop new ideas.

-- 
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|                 Andy Askey                      |
|              Software Engineer                  |
|           Raytheon Systems Company              |
|   670 Discovery Drive, Huntsville, AL  35806    |
|   Phone: (256) 971-2367  Fax: (256) 971-2306    |
|        andrew_j_askey@res.raytheon.com          |
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Robert Dewar wrote:
> 
> In article <1999Sep2.074353.1@eisner>,
>   Kilgallen@eisner.decus.org.nospam wrote:
> > One possible reason would be that the post appeared to be
> someone who
> > was attempting to do "homework via newsgroups".  This annoys
> two classes
> > of people:
> >
> >       1) Instructors who expect students to do their own work
> >
> >       2) Former students who did their own work back in the
> >          good old days
> >
> > At least once in this group the instructor who noticed the
> > post was actually the instructor who had assigned that problem
> > to that student.
> 
> Actually for me this misses the point, sure you may annoy the
> above two classes of people, but the important thing is that
> you are being very unfair to the student in this case, since
> it is very damaging for students to get in the habit of letting
> others do their work. They may not realize it at the time, but
> later on, they will regret it, and it is not a good idea to be
> an accomplice in this sequence of events :-)
> 
> That being said, you can often suggest something that will help
> the student help themselves, and then everyone wins.
> 
> Robert De
> 
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> Share what you know. Learn what you don't.