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From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: The purpose of Universities
Message-ID: <802@terak.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Oct-85 13:06:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: terak.802
Posted: Thu Oct 17 13:06:13 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Oct-85 06:23:28 EDT
References: <699@bu-cs.UUCP> <6431@duke.UUCP> <797@terak.UUCP> <135@opus.UUCP>
Organization: Calcomp Display Products Division, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
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> I DO hope that they're trying to provide an education which... is:
> 	- broad rather than deep...
> 	- concept-oriented rather than fact-(or experience- or...)oriented

I certainly hope so, too.  But I wonder if that education is really of
much value, particularly to an 18-year old who has not experienced much
for himself.

It might be a personal trait, but I find that what I was taught in
college didn't "mean" anything to me -- it was just too abstract.  But
two decades of living in the "real world" have given me something with
which to compare such teachings, and even allow me to make personal
judgements as to the value and correctness of those teachings.

> >...And I think that most serious college students
> > would agree that they experience very little "life" during their college
> > "four year sentence".
> 
> Some of them sure seem to have a helluva good time.  The really serious
> students are often the ones who dive into the courses and ignore "life".
> If you go at the coursework really hard, it takes most of your time.

Isn't that what I said?

> You can get exposure to a wide spectrum of ideas, theories,
> structurings of knowledge.  You can meet interesting people with good
> ideas, get connections to some of the real movers and shakers, sometimes
> learn by doing in an environment protected enough that the world doesn't
> collapse under you if you make a big mistake.  You can learn the techniques
> that help you find information when you need it, even if you don't know it.
> (You learn what knowledge exists and how it's organized even if you don't
> learn it all.)

And this brings us full circle, back to the original question of "what
should a college be?"  While some have argued that college should
provide a "trade school" type of education, I agree with the above
objectives.

But... (you knew that was coming, didn't you?)  Too often, colleges are
"neither fish nor fowl".  Instead, they assume that their primary
objective is to be a screening mechanism, assuring that only deserving
students achieve the hallowed "college degree".

If colleges truly were concerned about "teaching", they wouldn't have
courses that are closed to some students.  They wouldn't require the
declaration of a major in order to attend classes.  They wouldn't
require that each student take a certain number of "for credit" classes
each semester (or quarter, or whatever).  If you paid your tuition,
you should be able to attend whatever courses you think will be of
benefit to you, even if those courses don't contribute toward obtaining
a degree.

Now back to my own concern... even if colleges did concern themselves
with teaching, isn't it a mistake to "waste" that teaching on people
who don't have the "life experiences" to make good use of it?
-- 
Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {calcom1,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!doug