Jaclyn Whitehorn (jaclyn@bama.ua.edu)
Fri, 18 Sep 1998 13:16:54 -0500 (CDT)
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Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 13:16:54 -0500 (CDT) From: Jaclyn Whitehorn <jaclyn@bama.ua.edu> Subject: Re: [ifets] Another try - (Fwd) Size of Learning Market; Stock pick: Asymetr
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i have been lurking so far ... but now i want to put a few cents' worth
in:
one thing i am very concerned about every time i hear about making
education a business is the emphasis of "work-related skills" versus
"education". while i will not argue against better math and science
education, the issue is if that is instead of the poor math/science
education we are giving now, or if that will supplant such "useless"
subjects such as english literature, art, and music.
i wish i could remember where this stat came from, but i heard in a
lecture a year back that many k-12 teachers rated teaching children how to
use computers as more important than math or reading! this is terrifying,
because they are forgetting that technology is a _tool_, not an end in
itself. this is a perspective that i think this list has held onto very
well -- i just wish everyone else did!!
also, the trend i am seeing in higher education is to slight liberal arts
and social sciences for technology and business oriented subjects. i do
realize that the alumni for those fields tend to make a *little* more
money <grin>, but in my experience people with a background in the
arts/social sciences had better problem solving skills. i think that it
is only a matter of time (if it isn't already happening), before
businessed rediscover the value of a liberal education w/ a background in
technolgy. (disclaimer: i am biased - i have a degree in political
science, with a minor in computing.)
but there - i have vented plenty ;) just remember, if you use technology
for everything, but don't have an understanding of what it is doing and
why it works, you have become a slave to that technology and are no longer
independent ...
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Jaclyn Whitehorn * User Service Consultant
Seebeck Computer Center * The University of Alabama
jaclyn@bama.ua.edu * (205)348-8720
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