Re: Any research putting c above ada?

[adam@irvine.com (Adam Beneschan)]

John Apa <japa@DIE_SPAMMER.dasd.honeywell.com> writes:
 
 >Yes it is the student's responsibility to get the knowledge they need.
 >However the current trend in education is to over generalize so that the
 >student is a wonderful citizen by forcing them to take highly irrelevant
 >classes. The cal state system requires over 60% of classes not be
 >related to scientific majors. Yes, I probably picked the wrong school,
 >but this seems to be a general trend in "higher" education. Many schools
 >have gone away from preparing students for the "real" world. They need
 >to get back to their original purpose.

Seems this sort of discussion has come up before.  I agree with what
some have said that software engineering doesn't get enough attention
at some schools.  But I'm not at all convinced that the purpose of
colleges and universities is to prepare students for a job.  When I
went to college (in the University of California system), there were
very little requirements for taking courses outside one's major, and
no specific subject requirements.  There was a general "breadth"
requirement to take a number of courses of your choice outside your
school, most of which was fulfilled by the math courses required for
my CS degree.  Two years after I started, UC took the other path and
started imposing a lot of specific requirements in things like
history, foreign language, science, literature, I don't recall what
else.  At the time, I was glad the new requirements only applied to
new students.  Now, at age 36, I kind of wish I had been required to
take all those other courses.  I might not have appreciated it at the
time, but I'm now convinced the broad knowledge I would have gained on
a variety of subjects would have added to the enrichment of my life
since then.

Anyway, if my information is correct, the "original purpose" of
college was *not* simply to prepare students for jobs.  That was the
original purpose of trade schools and apprenticeships.  But think back
to when Harvard, Yale, William and Mary, etc., were founded back in
the 17th century or whenever.  Was their purpose to prepare 17th
century youngsters for whatever jobs there were back then?  Hardly.
The purpose of colleges and universities has always been to provide a
"well-rounded" education.  I think a lot of students go into college
with the idea that they're there *only* to get a passport to a job, or
to get job skills; but I believe this is a misconception.  Maybe we
need to have more trade schools and the like whose purpose is just to
provide job skills, as an alternative to colleges and universities.
But I also believe that lack of appreciation for the sort of
well-rounded education colleges have traditionally provided is a
disturbing sign of the decay of our society.

Oh, well . . . none of this has anything to do with
comp.lang.anything, so I'll get off my soapbox now.

                                -- Adam