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I agree with most of what you posted, so I won't bother with
addressing the stuff that I do. I'm only going to address what I
don't agree with.
>
> Though that's also true, I don't think we should accept the status
> quo--and
> teach it to students--just because that's the way things work. As
> professionals, one of our jobs is to advocate improvements, and
> make those
Too many kids are thrown into the street with an expectation that
real-life is what they learn in school.
They go into the real world and find out that they aren't in Kansas
anymore.
I agree that they should be taught the way it should be. However,
this must always be framed by how to do it while complying with
business' expectations.
I normally don't care for Rodney Dangerfield's movies...however,
there is one going around on cable now, something to the effect Back
to School, where a successful business man goes back to college and
he's in a business course where the proff is explaining how they are
going to create a fictional company "according to the book".
Dangerfield precedes to interrupt with question having to do with
bribing vendors, dealing with unions and the mob, leasing as opposed
to buying.
If there was a class on how to create a PDF, it would probably cover
the theory on fonts, spacing, white space, page vs screen size, etc.,
but not how to create a useful PDF of one documentation set while
you're in an all-day meeting planning the next project.
I'm not advocating "accept the status quo--and teach it to
students--just because that's the way things work." as a copout, but
we should prepare them to be productive under real conditions...teach
them how to make improvements within the system the way it really is.
=====
John Posada, Senior Technical Writer
"I am a bomb disposal expert. If you see me running, try to keep up." mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com, 732-259-2874
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