[Edu-sig] Python as Application

[Chuck Allison]

Sunday, October 30, 2005, 6:42:47 PM, I wrote:

Please let me clarify that in my comments below, I don't mean that CS
students shouldn't be trained in CS! (Good grief, I'm now a CS
professor!). But they shouldn't get short shrift on everything else as
they do in the "school" I refer to below. It sounds too Orwellian to me.

CA> I feel a need to weigh in here, even before reading any further responses in
CA> this thread.

CA> I agree very strongly with Arthur's statements. I think it's okay for
CA> a company to give donations to education, provided no strings are
CA> attached, but I would be happier if there were no need for such grants
CA> in the first place. Education, especially prior to the junior year of
CA> college, is about developing generalists. We need more wide-world-view
CA> thinkers everywhere.

CA> I didn't realize how strongly I felt about this until I visited a
CA> Microsoft/IBM sponsored "university" in Salt Lake a year ago February.
CA> They give students a B.S. in CS after 2.5 years of close to full-time
CA> work (and charge an arm and a leg to do it). They prepare people
CA> tailor-trained for Microsoft and IBM. I left thinking how much they
CA> miss of a well-balanced, liberal arts flavor education that is
CA> appropriate for a baccalaureate, even a traditional one in CS. They
CA> skimp so much on non-technical subjects that it's criminal, in my
CA> opinion. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool software developer (20+ years of
CA> industrial experience), but I would never trade my broad undergraduate
CA> experience for anything (I took so many extra non-technical courses
CA> that it took me 5 years - I had 160 semester hours on my transcript).

CA> It's so important that we don't throw growing minds in to a technical
CA> tunnel.

CA> Of course, from were I sit, few want to go into technical pursuits
CA> anyway :-(.




-- 
Best regards,
 Chuck