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From: anderson@uwmacc.UUCP (Jess Anderson)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Role of computer science
Message-ID: <377@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 19-Oct-86 21:33:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.377
Posted: Sun Oct 19 21:33:09 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Oct-86 21:59:14 EDT
References: <1050@gilbbs.UUCP>
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 59


Tom Keller writes:
> 
>    This argument has gotten utterly ridiculous.  We have heard from San Diego
> that there is no need for people to study the theory of computing, we have
> heard from various other sectors that industry doesn't need or want Computer
> Scientists, and we have heard from still other sectors that the educational
> systems are defrauding students, by permitting them to study Computer Science
> when what they *REALLY* wanted was Professional Programming.
  [...]
>    The proposition is really quite simple:
> 
>    Computer Science, Software Engineering, and Programming are very different
> professions.  They overlap in some areas, and certainly the FUNDAMENTAL skills
> required for all three are similar, if not identical.  This, however, does NOT
> mean that we should destroy the theoretical orientation of the Computer Science
> department, in order to train Software Engineers or Programmers.  These people
> need their *OWN*, independent departments, optomized to provide them with the
> best training available for their chosen professions.
> 
>    It is utterly ridiculous to suggest otherwise.
> 
I've been reading this discussion for some time now, holding my peace.
Maybe it's because things have changed so much since I was in school,
but I think Tom is quite right. What *is* going on in the minds of our
students when they go to college? What do they expect? I've been so
exasperated with this whole discussion recently because it strikes me
(maybe it's just me, and I guess Tom) as *too* immature to expect the
school to train you for a job. I'm frustrated because I don't think
that's what going to school is for. I'm down on the institutions, too,
because what they offer is *too much* like vocational training. 
   But I don't want to  rant over those points. Instead, I'd
like to give counsel to those looking for real-world solutions
to real-world problems. Trouble is, that isn't so easy, because there
are tremendous conflicts built into the whole situation in higher
education. Tuition is rising, students graduate with crushing debts,
the society breeds greed and dreams of "making it big," and dozens of
other factors make it nearly impossible to know how to direct yourself
in the interval between high school and life at work, even if you are
one of those (increasingly rare) persons who does *not* depend on some
authority figure for life's basic decisions (I know my biases are showing,
but what can I do :-).
   Let me just collapse all my great recommendations into one, because
in fact it subsumes all others:

   --> Learn to read and write effectively! <--

If you can do that, everything else is going to be substantially
easier. The better you can do it, the richer, more interesting,
and more productive your life will be. If you have language literacy,
everything else will be a snap, including success, if that's what
turns you on.
-- 
==ARPA:====================anderson@unix.macc.wisc.edu===Jess Anderson======
|      (Please use ARPA if you can.)                     MACC              |
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==Words are not just blown air. They have a meaning.=====(Chuang Tsu)=======