Engineering Washout?

I just got finished reading this article on Tech Central Station. Go ahead and read it. Then come back and we'll discuss.

Finished? I find it hard to believe that Mr. Kern actually got TCS to publish this bit of lightweight drivel. Usually, they publish much more substantive pieces dealing with economics and politics. In this case, what they got was the same type of rant that I used to hear from fellow students my first year in college. "The classes are hard. The teachers can't teach. This information is useless. They are just trying to weed out students." Wah, wah, wah.

I admit that my first year in college for an engineering degree was hard. But looking back on it, it was not hard due to any of the listed reasons. The course material was challenging, but certainly not as hard to comprehend or master as that of some of the material I learned in later years. The teachers may not always have been the best, but it's not ultimately their job to make sure that the students master the material. The best that teachers can do is present the information. Some do it better than others, but ultimately it is the student's job to learn. And I find it hard to swallow the argument that universities and professors are purposely trying to fail students out of their programs. They all know where their money comes from.

No, the hardest challenge as a first year engineering student is learning how to learn. High schools to some extent hand feed information to students. It is possible to simply show up at class and learn the material without putting in any outside effort. And that is the situation that Mr. Kern is complaining about. He is complaining that his university expected him to put in any significant amount of effort at all. Here's his description of his liberal arts pals:

Meanwhile, my friends majoring in the liberal arts pulled dandy grades
while studying little.

At the root, Mr. Kern seems to be complaining that he wants to be spoon-fed information and not have to learn it himself. And that seems to be the root of the issue.

In my career as an engineer, I've run into many of the same people. These people are often very smart and capable individuals, much as Mr. Kern appears to be. However, they lack the ability to take that step beyond and apply themselves. When presented with a well defined problem or difficulty, they are capable of solving it. However, they can't seem to make the intellectual jump from a nebulous, ill-defined problem to a problem that can be described and solved. In short, they are still looking for someone to hand feed them. And as anyone who has spent any time in the real world knows, it's very difficult to find someone to do that on a regular basis.

Mr. Kern ends his article with a plea that the field of engineering study to changed. I am firmly against that idea. What needs to be changed is the lazy assumption that the world should be easy. Students in a university should learn the value of hard work and the fact that almost any problem can be solved if enough effort is applied.

And those are exactly the lessons that the first year of engineering study supplies.