At 15:39 18/01/2001, you wrote:
>Dean,
>
>I think this is the crux of the whole agruement. 2u + 3u computing is
>theoretical and this indicates a large void in the education of our youth in
>the technology areas that are now standard and required knowledge in
>industry. Education is about being employable isnt it?
<RANT>
I tried to resist, I really did, but..........why is there this perception
in society that the only thing worthwhile is employment?!!!
Surely a person is much more than a 'human resource' to be used and
discarded at will? Which seems to be the general attitude of business these
days, the only thing that counts is the so called 'bottom-line". If we are
just 'human resources' to be used abused and spat out by the business
sector then yes education is about being employable. If however you
remember that people are first and foremost a social being that we need to
interact, communicate, love and be loved, that we (well most) want to do
more in life that just be an employee then there is a whole lot more to
education than just being employable. Primary and Secondary education used
to be about the 'person' about helping individuals become a complete, well
rounded, logical, caring, loving, respectful. We should be teaching them
about themselves, about self worth, human diginity, how to interact, how to
care about others, how to go on learning, how to value life, how to be the
best possible person they can be. I try to teach my students what they
individually need, I do not teach computing, but I do use computing as my
vehicle for achieving a great range (not all, I am no superhuman) of these
objectives.
I guess that would make them more employable, but heck maybe the employer
might have to take some responsibilty for assessing their own needs and
carrying out their own training. Maybe then they would treat their
employess with more respect as they had invested precious money in them.
BTW there is no longer any 2U and 3U Computing Studies, as someone eles
pointed out they have been replaced by Software Design and Development
(which can be done in any language(s) available to the school and which
they have suitably trained staff) and Information Processing and
Technologies a much wider but still fairly rigorous course.
</RANT OFF>
As this is way off topic and I have found in the past that the best you can
do in these arguments is to end up agreeing to disagree I will not respond
any more.
Simon Bryan
____________________________________
IT Manager
OLMC Parramatta
http://www.olmc.nsw.edu.au
____________________________________
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