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From: billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 )
Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Re^2: CS education
Message-ID: <7291@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Date: 2 Dec 89 20:56:14 GMT
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Reply-To: billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu
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From perry@apollo.HP.COM (Jim Perry):
>>Why must students specialize? (Not why *would* they, but why *must* they?)

  Nobody is saying (I think) that students *must* specialize.  If a
  student wishes to become a generalist, then that path should be open.

  The problem is that the system dictates that everyone *must*
  be a generalist, and does not permit sufficient specialization
  (within an economically reasonable amount of time and money).
 
> In solid practical terms a greater emphasis on English would benefit
> more engineers than any particular new SE course.  

   A greater emphasis on documentation, perhaps -- far too few CS
   graders pay any attention to documentation as a vital element
   of product quality.
 
> I'm firmly of the opinion that there's much too much specialization in
> American undergraduate education.  College is, for most of us, the
> last chance to be exposed to a broad palette of educational
> opportunity.  To waste that time in narrow pursuit of a particular
> discipline, whether as a precursor to graduate study, or as
> preparation for the job market, or even out of personal preference, is
> a waste of an opportunity.  I consider this true at the level of
> choosing CS over history; I would *certainly* counsel avoiding a
> choice between CS and SE (while acknowledging that they are different,
> or at least represent different, possibly overlapping, regions of a
> spectrum).

   Well, Jim, I think you're certainly entitled to this opinion, and
   I would encourage you to exercise your First Amendment rights to
   provide *counsel* to your heart's content.  It's just that I also
   think I should be able to listen to other people's counsel as well,
   and make my own decision.  

   Remember: nothing prohibits me from taking history, etc. at a later 
   date should I eventually gain an interest in the topic.  If this is
   the case, I will have a much higher level of retention because of my 
   *interest* in the topic.  I would submit that practically all of what
   one is forced to study is destined to be completely forgotten, and that
   the paradigm of forced study of irrelevant topics is simply a waste of 
   the student's time and of both the student's and the taxpayer's money.  


   Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu


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