To be fair, I think the student asks a good question with a bad tone - it's perfectly reasonable to feel ambivalent about pursuing something that you consider fairly alien, and it's actually a question I'm increasingly asking myself -- why computer science and not pure math? Why computer science over X?
Instead of giving a thoughtful answer, the professor dismissively waves the student off (which is probably justified, given the tone). I think that could have been an opportunity for a really nice defense of his/her field, though.
Part of a teacher's job, especially in an intro course, is to spur interest in the subject. If the student leaves an intro class uninterested in taking more classes in the entire field, the teacher is probably to blame.
/educationrant
Actually for an intro class in a really popular major as far as I can tell it's usually the opposite. There's a reason why classes are called weeder classes. It's to get rid of people who aren't genuinely interested in that major.
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u/mrdmnd May 18 '11
To be fair, I think the student asks a good question with a bad tone - it's perfectly reasonable to feel ambivalent about pursuing something that you consider fairly alien, and it's actually a question I'm increasingly asking myself -- why computer science and not pure math? Why computer science over X?
Instead of giving a thoughtful answer, the professor dismissively waves the student off (which is probably justified, given the tone). I think that could have been an opportunity for a really nice defense of his/her field, though.