From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.4 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_50,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public From: adam@irvine.com (Adam Beneschan) Subject: Re: Any research putting c above ada? Date: 1997/05/07 Message-ID: <5kolqj$dsn$1@krusty.irvine.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 239876943 References: <5k88f8$387@bcrkh13.bnr.ca> <336E0B58.50D6@DIE_SPAMMER.dasd.honeywell.com> Organization: /z/news/newsctl/organization Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-05-07T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: John Apa 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