Georg Wrede wrote:
OTOH, to make things really happen, we need the other kind of guys. Those of us who want to understand. They're the ones who advance the state of the art, and without that, we'd still be traveling on steam trains. I just wish there were more schools and pedagogic knowledge (and good teachers, of course) to make things interesting and fun for us others. But without that, many students get by with so-so grades, having invested only 10% of their effort into it. I know I did. What a waste.
I'm not sure I agree with the idea that a professor should make the material entertaining. Sometimes I get frustrated with Nova and all its eye-candy, and want to yell at them to get to the meat.
I see many efforts to remove the work from learning difficult concepts. I think they're all failures. You actually have to work to learn things, and work takes effort and sweat. No pain, no gain.
If you need entertainment and inspiration, go watch Star Trek <g>.
