Re: Problems in Education

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

Michael Edmiston wrote:
...
> I sometimes have had professors assign so much work that
> a person already
> knowledgeable in the field ... cannot
> complete the assigned work within the 2-hr guideline.
...
> I have also seen the opposite... professors who assign
> no outside work.

There is a small trade school in Pasadena that recognizes
that some classes might _appropriately_ require greater or
lesser ratios of lecture time to other time.  Each course
is given three numbers (lecture hours, lab hours, homework
hours).

http://pr.caltech.edu/catalog/01_02/courses/physics.html

 -- The "typical" course e.g. Ph 106 (Topics in Classical Physics)
is rated (3-0-6) which upholds Prof. Edmiston's 2-to-1 ratio
guideline.
 -- On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with Ph 10
(Frontiers in Physics) which is rated (2-0-1) i.e. not much
homework.
 -- As another example, Ph 20 is a lab course, rated (0-6-0).
 -- Ph 79 (Theoretical Senior Thesis) is rated (0-0-9) i.e.
no lecture at all.

Graduation requirements take _total_ hours (among other
things) into account: lecture+lab+homework.

This is so logical that it'll probably never catch on :-).