perspective on ruby

[Edward Elliott]

robert wrote:
 > Yes - start them explore. I'd not want to be "teached" a specific
 > _language_ in a course longer that one day. A language cannot be teached.
 > Who of the posters in this thread want themselves to be _teached_ more
 > than one day on a language?
 >
> Isn't the fun, finding the right tools for certain purposes one-self?

That holds for bright, motivated students.  The problem is the others. 
Some people are totally lost when you throw them a book and say "learn 
this".   So the choices are:

1. Do it and watch the rank-and-file students abandon the major
2. Provide more language-specific instruction

Now places like Berkeley and MIT can afford to take route 1.  They already 
have a surplus of bright, motivated students.  But at many (most?) schools, 
route 2 is in the dept's best interest.  Number of majors affects prestige, 
influence, and at many state schools funding.  Telling the rank-and-file to 
shove off is shooting themselves in the foot, and ultimately hurts the good 
students as well with a lesser dept.  These depts are walking a tightrope 
as they try hard to maintain minimum standards.  It's not a binary choice 
really, it's a spectrum.

So while route 1 may be better for the profession as a whole, the current 
educational system has some pretty strong pressures for route 2.