[geeks] geeks Digest, Vol 86, Issue 11

[Lionel Peterson]

On Jan 20, 2010, at 3:53 PM, Phil Stracchino <alaric at metrocast.net>  
wrote:

> On 01/20/10 15:23, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> On Jan 20, 2010, at 2:59 PM, Joshua Boyd <jdboyd at jdboyd.net> wrote:
>>
>>> However, I would rather see general
>>> liberal arts requirements be sufficiently covered in high school
>>> rather
>>> than see people wasting their time on liberal arts college programs.
>>
>> Wasting?!
>>
>> You my friend are a philistine!
>
> No.  I just don't think that you can teach someone to "appreciate"
> something that they don't have any interest in, and that the  
> majority of
> liberal-arts requirements are all but useless to anyone who's not
> planning on a career somewhere in the pure or applied arts.  I have no
> problem whatsoever with people who are *interested* in, say, modern
> dance or music history studying it.  But if you take someone who  
> doesn't
> give a damn about, say, Shakespeare and force them to study his plays,
> they're just going to go through the motions anyway, then sell their
> textbooks back to the bookstore at the end of the quarter and never
> voluntarily pick up a play again.  A knowledge of Shakepeare,  
> Wagner, or
> the history of modern interpretive dance is a useful thing *if* your
> avocation is, say, the theater or the orchestra.  But it's not a basic
> life competency.  I have no objection whatsoever to them being taught
> ... *as electives*.  But why on earth does a research chemist, a tank
> driver, or an oilwell engineer need to be able to write an essay on  
> the
> similarities and differences between salsa and flamenco, or the
> influence of the Spanish civil war on the work of Pablo Picasso?
>
>
> -- 
>  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
>  alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
>         Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
>                 It's not the years, it's the mileage.

A 'Renaissance Man' opposed to a rounded education? Odd.

A college degree is proof of a particular accoplishment that includes  
the study of various topics. What you propose seems more like a  
certificate, akin to the MCSE and CCNA weilding noobs wave when  
applying for a system admin position... They are proof of a much  
narrower accomplishment.

If you only want the narrower accomplisment, you shouldn't go to  
college...

Lionel