More teachology

My Master of Science is in Computer Science. When I taught in a local college, I found that some people in my classes thought I was practicing "occupational birth control", and I remembered the doctoral head of the department where I studied for my degree. (I was in way over my head, and my daughter's friends thought that Mom was a single parent, but I somehow made it though the courses.)

The department head in my university had cured me of the "occupational birth control" approach - he demanded that we memorize portions of reference books and spit them back on high stakes tests. My classmate, Marsha, looked at the second question on a final exam that read, "Name all 32 Interrupt Priority Levels for a VAX 11-785" and did a bit of math - she would not fail the course if she did not pass the test. She wrote, "I did not buy reference books to memorize them" and walked out of the classroom.

I didn't announce to my students that they had to memorize crap. I wanted my students to focus on success; If my students showed up, paid attention, and tried their best, I would support them. Nobody who did that was less than average.