Re: Opium [was: Re: freelance sysadmining -- superlong -- [WAS: "Red Hat recommends Windows for consumers"]]
Don Werve <donw@examen.com> said:
>>For those wealthy enough to attend college, many
>>will attain near-useless English and Liberal Arts degrees, because >>they
>>lack the impetus, drive, and determination to pursue a more difficult
>>degree.
Pigeon <jah.pigeon@ukonline.co.uk> said:
>>which means that university entrance standards have to drop
>>dramatically and
>>the vast majority of students take useless degrees of which the
>>canonical example is "media studies".
I take great offense at both of these statements. That you assume I lack
impetus, drive, and determination, simply because I hold a Bachelor of
Arts in English, stuns me.
In fact, I left my studies in Computer Engineering after two years at
one of the top-rated science/engineering schools in the U.S., as I felt
that a myopic education dedicated to study of engineering/science/math
could not meet my desire for a wide breadth of study. Only when I began
my degree in Liberal Arts did I find what I consider an important
balance of theory and practice, of objective and subjective analysis.
To continue on a path unfulfilling of my needs in order to fetch a
high-paying position would have reflected a lack of determination and
drive. Instead, I chose the difficult path.
I can only assume that by "useless" you mean "will not earn as much
money as one trained in a specific area of science/technology," and not
"unworthy of study," as I have found my studies in the Arts just as
applicable to my worldview as my studies in the Sciences, if not more
so. If anything, the U.S. school system suffers from a dearth of Liberal
Arts education (I speak of a truly "liberal" arts, including studies in
the sciences).
Perhaps I'm singular in this regard, but I did not attend college to be
trained, but rather to develop and strengthen those skills essential to
leading the most informed, conscious, "examined" life possible.
The "holier than though" attitude of much of the technocentric
population frustrates me endlessly. I'm offended both as a proponent of
the Liberal Arts *and* as one who believes in the importance of science
and technology; attacked on one side, flanked by disbelievers on the
other...
--
M.
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