From: utzoo!decvax!microsof!fluke!vax1:kurt
Newsgroups: net.followup
Title: Re: How can they do this
Article-I.D.: vax1.231
Posted: Mon Oct 25 09:34:43 1982
Received: Wed Oct 27 08:10:55 1982

(flame on)

What is wrong with requiring PCs at Drexel? Is Drexel a public school
or community college or is it a private school?  Private schools are
not, after all, required in any way to make education inexpensive.  On
the other hand, a personal computer is an excellent adjunct to other
classroom tools.  I think its price is justified as a typewriter
alone.  (Who among you in net.land would willingly give up your screen
editor and go back to an ordinary typewriter and card punch?)
Educators are only beginning to realize the potential of computers.

If a PC is *required* at a given public institution, arrangements will
certainly be made to provide the unit through loans, grants, or
government financing, just like books, room and board, and tuition.

I note that CS and EE types (who will make greatest use of a PC in
education in the short run) can expect substantial income as a result
of their education, and can therefore 'afford' personal computers in
the sense that they can get a loan to be paid back on graduation.
Medical students have been doing just that for years.  Banks loan to
them because they see a pretty good potential for getting their money
back.

(afterburners on)

Education is *not* a right.  Neither the poor nor the wealthy are
entitled to an advanced degree by any law, natural, traditional, or
statutory.  If a student cannot afford an education out of pocket,
cannot get a scholarship on merit, cannot get a loan on perceived
potential, and cannot find a job to support him at a minimum level
while his education is in progress, then perhaps he does not belong in
college.

It is almost inconceivable that the circumstances that brought such a
person to such a point were *totally* beyond that person's control.
When others can succeed in circumstances where you fail, it is not the
system that is at fault.

Each person makes the decisions that control his destiny, and must
eventually live with decisions that have been made.

(afterburners off)

(flame off, for now)

Afraid to sign my return address but unable to fool the mail system
Kurt Guntheroth