Engineering students building school desks.

[odanny]

Without mentioning the university, a small private school with a repuation as an engineering school, sent a some engineering students (no idea how many) to a local school (in a shelter for low income persons, a day care) and of these 18 childrens desks (good for about 4-6 years old, tops) they put together ALL 18 of them wrong. The desk lids are cut out near the student and lids are hinged, to swing up 45 degrees for drawing. Cut off was on the wrong side of the desk legs (on the short side instead of long) and the drawers that pull out and hold supplies were also almost all of them put in backwards.

They did this as an assignment, for school credit, on the Thursday night, and got all of them wrong. I went in and fixed them, I really want to make an anonymous call to whoever gives them credit for this and tell them they all failed miserably.

 

[MarathonMike]

How good were the assembly diagrams? Were they time constrained? Stories like this just sound like an easy way to take a swipe at someone without all the information.

 

[odanny]

How good were the assembly diagrams? Were they time constrained? Stories like this just sound like an easy way to take a swipe at someone without all the information.

I want you to consider something. There are a bunch of popular bars nearby, on a Thursday evening, only a few blocks away. Do they want be building desks only blocks away from all those bars their friends might be in?

So that leaves us with 2 choices:

1) They were in a rush and didn't care, just wanted to get it over with.

2) They were clueless and couldn't read fairly simple instructions. (I also put together 4 new ones today, alongside someone else who did the same)

I know how easy they are to build, took me roughly 20-25 minutes each after opening the box.

Which choice is better, #1 or #2?

 

[candycorn]

Without mentioning the university, a small private school with a repuation as an engineering school, sent a some engineering students (no idea how many) to a local school (in a shelter for low income persons, a day care) and of these 18 childrens desks (good for about 4-6 years old, tops) they put together ALL 18 of them wrong. The desk lids are cut out near the student and lids are hinged, to swing up 45 degrees for drawing. Cut off was on the wrong side of the desk legs (on the short side instead of long) and the drawers that pull out and hold supplies were also almost all of them put in backwards.

They did this as an assignment, for school credit, on the Thursday night, and got all of them wrong. I went in and fixed them, I really want to make an anonymous call to whoever gives them credit for this and tell them they all failed miserably.

I have enough "leftover" parts from my many IKEA conquests to outfit a small elementary school.

 

[jotathought]

Without mentioning the university, a small private school with a repuation as an engineering school, sent a some engineering students (no idea how many) to a local school (in a shelter for low income persons, a day care) and of these 18 childrens desks (good for about 4-6 years old, tops) they put together ALL 18 of them wrong. The desk lids are cut out near the student and lids are hinged, to swing up 45 degrees for drawing. Cut off was on the wrong side of the desk legs (on the short side instead of long) and the drawers that pull out and hold supplies were also almost all of them put in backwards.

They did this as an assignment, for school credit, on the Thursday night, and got all of them wrong. I went in and fixed them, I really want to make an anonymous call to whoever gives them credit for this and tell them they all failed miserably.

So the university produced poor results with the set of engineering students .. are you surprised given the performance measurements currently utilized for math, science, english and reading?

 

[MarathonMike]

I want you to consider something. There are a bunch of popular bars nearby, on a Thursday evening, only a few blocks away. Do they want be building desks only blocks away from all those bars their friends might be in?

So that leaves us with 2 choices:

1) They were in a rush and didn't care, just wanted to get it over with.

2) They were clueless and couldn't read fairly simple instructions. (I also put together 4 new ones today, alongside someone else who did the same)

I know how easy they are to build, took me roughly 20-25 minutes each after opening the box.

Which choice is better, #1 or #2?

Aha! See more information. Yeah ok I'd go with #1

 

[odanny]

I want to add one more twist to this story:

This engineering school has a LOT of foreign students in the programs, it's expensive, and these kids come from wealthy families overseas. Many can design an electrical circuit or a bridge or a building, but put a tool in their hand and they can only look and wonder how it works.

 

[DGS49]

A picture or two would have been nice.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

I want you to consider something. There are a bunch of popular bars nearby, on a Thursday evening, only a few blocks away. Do they want be building desks only blocks away from all those bars their friends might be in?

So that leaves us with 2 choices:

1) They were in a rush and didn't care, just wanted to get it over with.

2) They were clueless and couldn't read fairly simple instructions. (I also put together 4 new ones today, alongside someone else who did the same)

I know how easy they are to build, took me roughly 20-25 minutes each after opening the box.

Which choice is better, #1 or #2?

How old were these students that they could hang out in bars?

 

[odanny]

How old were these students that they could hang out in bars?

I don't know, but I think I've figured it out.

Thursday night has always been a party night, getting ready for the weekend, I believe the students in there on that night didn't drink because they are likely foreign students, who don't go out like the American kids as much. It also helps explain the head scratching imcompetence, not attributed to a lack of intelligence, more to complete unfamiliarity of ever building anything once in their young lives.