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From: elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Student preparedness (you know...)
Message-ID: <6525@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 22 Dec 88 09:00:31 GMT
References: <15954@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 30

in article <15954@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>, bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) says:
> U.S. industry isn't suffering because its scientists are second-rate --
> it's in trouble because its blue-collar workers can't keep up with the
> technology they should be using.

I tend to disagree. Blue-collar workers in, say, Taiwan, recieve
little more training than our average U.S. high school graduate,
academic-wise.  They're tested in the 7th grade or so for entry into
the upper level, and if they don't pass, they're placed in a technical
school to teach them a skill instead of placed on the high track. You
might draw the conclusion that the U.S. needs a better system of
technical schools for teaching blue-collar skills, but that's another
issue altogether.

U.S. industry is more likely in trouble because of management
short-sightedness, and modern takeover wizards who turn investment in
modernization into debt on leverage buyouts. Not to mention business
and engineering schools which fail to mention that businesses are in
business to BUILD things, not just to "manage personel" or "create
moby hacks"...  good production engineering, commonplace in Japan, is
a rarity here.

True, U.S. industry isn't suffering because its scientists are
second-rate. But that's just because it imports its scientists from
overseas, just like its VCRs and color TVs.

--
Eric Lee Green    ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg
          Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509              
Netter A: In Hell they run VMS.
Netter B: No.  In Hell, they run MS-DOS.  And you only get 256k.