[geeks] geeks Digest, Vol 86, Issue 11

[Joshua Boyd]

On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 03:23:16PM -0500, 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!

If their highschool had been up to snuff, they could be earning a living
(or getting advanced training) rather than finally learning the basics
of english and public speaking.  A lot of college looks like making up
for poor highschool.

In short, I'm pushing for moving half of college into highschool after
making highschool (and primary school) much more efficient.

> Go study at a technical institute (I went to Stevens in Hoboken -  
> briefly!), they 'dismiss' non-technical classes like you do. I think the 
> English department head was part-time, non-tenured.

I'm not against non-technical courses.  I fully support high school
teachers having to take non-technical courses.  I fully support people
desiring to be english professors taking plenty of non-technical
courses, and I support people being able to take a class in whatever
they want to learn more about.

> When I got my BA, I had to have a conversation for 60 minutes with a  
> college professor on ONE topic (choosen by me, related to my major)  
> before I could graduate. I thought that was a fine way to test potential 
> graduates, it was pass/fail, no grade.

Seems reasonable.