[Info-vax] And another one bites the dust....

[John Dallman]

In article <suttpa$1i1$1 at dont-email.me>, davef at tsoft-inc.com (Dave Froble)
wrote:

> Bad assumption.  In secondary schools, and grade schools, one is 
> taught facts. One isn't taught to think much about the facts.  
> After all, one would need the facts before being able to think 
> about them.  But at some time some more abstract thought about the 
> world around us is needed, and that should happen at university.  
> At least, that's how I see it.

Over here, the political drive to send more of the 18+ age group to
university - up from 10% fifty years ago to 50% now - and the requirement
that most of them actually graduate has rather spoiled that. There wasn't
any corresponding drastic upgrade of secondary education. You get some
bright students at any university, and the highly selective ones have a
higher proportion, but there are a lot of graduates without much in the
way of thinking skills. 

My employer selects for being quick at learning, plus decent mathematical
ability. We aren't at all bothered about existing programming skills. We
can teach someone enough programming in a month or so to put them to work.


John