Teaching maths at uni level is now very weird. Detailed notes are demanded and delivered, with further elaborations by video recorded and available, all problems and questions posed, fully answered LaTeX-ed and available, all past exams with solutions available.

Soon there will be extensive repositories of questions and answers that can be looked into, copied, reproduced, for assignments, and even remote exams. One less incentive to grasp the fundamental structures, correspondences -the minimalist among all subjects in relying on memory.

There is extreme reluctance to read up texts, of which there are so many more than in our green days - because one will have to read through and work out the problems on one's own, wrestle with unfamiliar territory - which takes time away from enjoying life.

Questions cannot differ much from past exams for which full solutions have already been provided, and explained - as if it does differ then it is a traumatic experience that scars life forever, destroying all chances of future happiness and is a mode of deprivation.

the whole issue is that when solutions are all provided, it stops all the grappling, all the dead ends - each little wrong idea, each little dead-end teaches something, that little wrong path might not hv led to the promised beach but to a lake that is fascinating in its own way.

all those little failures, reveal a facet of the underlying complexity, and its beauty, that would otherwise remain hidden - for we wd hv followed the supposed one true path, and therefore learnt only one small part of the whole.

in maths, there r underlying structures that in some ways trigger our sense of beauty, simple relationships, similarities, patterns but at an abstract level. Recognizing them makes problems a pleasurable walk through the mountain passes or strolling along endless beaches.

this rant was triggered by postgrad complaining as to why they was being forced to answer a question on correctness of an algo when all that was needed was make the software chew on the numbers. After all hasnt it already been proven? it was a reputed software, so must be correct

I instantly agreed: it was a brilliant idea. We shd no longer waste schoolkids time learning how to multiply two numbers. After all, their smart devices can do it anyway. In fact it might be a waste to hv postgrads too. If all they can do cd be done by software why waste time!

Jokes apart, I do feel, maybe education itself shd go back to the "voluntary", seeker way: uni's shd concentrate on research - ppl can learn it all from solved question banks, solved past exams, detailed notes, and at its shortest cut - buy solutions.