In which I Lament my Loss of Idealism in Education

I believe education should be about more than getting a good job.  Back during my brief stint of math tutoring, when my group of whiny fifth graders asked me why they had to learn math I told them that math is good for them, and then made them do calisthenics until they were too tired to argue with me.  (Never mistake me for a good teacher, darling readers.  I do what I can, but I really dislike children.)

Currently, I do not have the luxury of pretending that my job is about something other than trying to get my students decent jobs.  They don't have a welfare state that will do anything if they are starving or sick, and they will probably have children, maybe lots of them.   Anyone who is moderately skilled with a computer is pretty much guaranteed a job here, and if they can program, which I'm trying to teach them, they can get really great jobs.  I have two hours a week that I am supposed to teach them programming in, which is actually much less because they never arrive on time and I can seldom get the keys on time (grr). I try.  At the expense of being a mean hard teacher that they don't like, I try.  Recently they actually sent me the class representatives to complain to me that the homework was too hard and they wanted easier problems.  Not only did I tell them no, I told the class reps that I needed their cooperation.  I see some people sleeping in class, and I ask them if they have any questions and if they understand and are able to do the homework, and if no one tells me they have problems, I am not going to know.  So now I have people asking questions and wanting me to repeat things.  Progress!  Some people have even taking me to emailing me their code and asking for help.  They still don't like me, but they take me seriously.   And yes, I will make them do assignments where they have to open and close files and deal with the contents, because that is probably the most useful programming skill to have.  I wish I had the time to hold their hands a little more, but I don't.  I wish I had the tool-ish mentality to just teach them things like flowcharts (which I am reasonably sure the department head is going to yell at me about for not teaching them) but I have this attitude that a programming class should teach the students the rudiments of programming, and the only way to learn it is to do it.  I want them to be the most qualified computer professionals in Tanzania (which, unfortunately, is not a difficult aspiration) so that they can have a better quality of life for themselves and their children.  I'll readily agree that I am not a great teacher, but giving easier problems than what I know they can solve if they put the effort in isn't going to make me a better one.  

Teaching is frustrating.  At least I am actually teaching though, and I am not being forced to teach stupid things like the various types of network topologies to people who can't even type.