Re: Education (Was Re: Techwriting After the Boom)

["Robert Plamondon" <robert -at- plamondon -dot- com>]

Peter writes:

>IMNVHO, at least the first two years of post secondary education should
>be devoted to liberal arts courses such as: art history; philosophy; and
>great literature works and oratory. (Of course a proper foundation
>should first be laid in high schools.) Such courses should include
>extensive training in explaining opposing points of view. This would
>teach the fundamentals of problem analysis and explanation of solutions.

I got a lot of mileage out of the College of Liberal Arts when I was a
student, but only because I bent it to my will and not the other way around.
I cherry-picked the classes that were going to be of most use to me while I
was working on my Electrical Engineering degree.

But most of the classes were hands-off yakkety-yak classes. They'd talk the
hind leg off a donkey about stuff that could be disposed of in minutes in
the lab -- Zeno's paradox, for instance -- and never reach a conclusion.
Discovering Truth wasn't really part of the curriculum -- that was for REAL
philosophers.  Students were just supposed to play in the philosophy
sandbox.  The same was true for literature and art.

All of which was fun, but I had limited funds and other things to do.

	-- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon
36475 Norton Creek Rd, Blodgett OR 97326
robert -at- plamondon -dot- com

Check out my new book, "Success With Baby Chicks" and our reprinted poultry
classics: Hutt's "Genetics of the Fowl," Heuser's "Feeding Poultry," and
Hastings' "The Dollar Hen" at http://www.plamondon.com/nortoncreekpress.html

See our Free-Range Poultry Web Page at http://www.plamondon.com




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Robohelp X3, from eHelp, lets you quickly and easily create 
professional Help systems for all your Windows and Web-based 
applications, including Net.

Buy RoboHelp Office X4 by June 13th and receive
$100 mail-in rebate, Plus FREE RoboHelp Plus Pack.

Order RoboHelp today: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.