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From: mitchell@community-chest.uucp (George Mitchell)
Newsgroups: sci.edu,comp.edu,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: CS education
Summary: The U isn't PS 100
Message-ID: <81983@linus.UUCP>
Date: 6 Dec 89 15:10:53 GMT
References: <16315@duke.cs.duke.edu> <7296@hubcap.clemson.edu> <489@cherry5.UUCP>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: gmitchel@mitre (George Mitchell)
Followup-To: sci.edu
Organization: MITRE-McLean Software Engineering Laboratory
Lines: 49

In article <489@cherry5.UUCP> murphyn@cell.mot.COM (Neal P. Murphy) wrote:
`Education involves much more than training. The purpose of college or
`university is not to train students to perform a specific task. Its
`purpose is to enable students to learn as much as they can about as many
`different topics as they can, so that by the time they graduate and enter
`the industrial/business world, they will know how *and* where to find
`answers to questions, solutions to problems, without having to pass the
`problem on to someone else. A technician, who has been trained, passes an
`unknown problem to an appropriate engineer, who has been educated, who
`solves it and instructs the technician how to fix it.
`
`A college/university education enables one to communicate effectively with
`anyone:  co-workers, management, fellow countrymen, foreigners in his land,
`or natives in their own land. An education teaches him that the needs of
`other people aren't necessarily the same as his needs, that these
`differences are part of what make up the dynamics of this planet.
`                 ....                   The purpose of college is to give
`the student as broad a background as possible, so that that student will be
`able to lead as productive, good and independent a life as possible.

What has happened  to our concept  of public schooling?   I thought that
grades K  through 12 were supposed  to prepare us to  be citizens of our
state, country,  and the world.   This  is  the  arena  in which  we are
supposed to have our exposure to "as many different topics" as possible.
If the public schools are  not succeeding, the  remedy  should NOT be to
accept the situation and help the fortunate in college.

In the college/university we are expected  to specialize.  Most students
have major/minor fields of  study and learn as much  as they  can  about
those fields.  However, within  this  narrower scope,  the tendency   IS
towards education  (providing knowledge) rather than training (providing
practice in performance).   It is  for these  reasons that many  schools
have  developed extensive  cooperative programs to  supplement knowledge
with  experience  and   professions have  provided   apprenticeships (MD
interns).

I   suggest   that the   followup to this  thread  move to sci.edu.  The
discussion has  moved from what  background is necessary to  prepare the
computer science/software engineering student for  life after college to
what is the purpose of education after  high school.   In a country with
extensive adult education programs, colleges no longer  need to consider
themselves  the last chance  an  individual  has to become  enlightened.
Given the rapidly decreasing  employment opportunities for inexperienced
people  without highly specialized knowledge,   perhaps the role of  the
college and the curricula it offers needs revamping.
--
/s/ George   vmail: 703/883-6029
email:  mitchell@community-chest.mitre.org    [alt: gmitchel@mitre.arpa]
snail:  GB Mitchell, MITRE, MS Z676, 7525 Colshire Dr, McLean, VA  22102