[plt-scheme] A first experiment with HTDP

HtDP is clearly on the educational side of the spectrum that you're  
worried about. So you should praise Grant for trying to add education  
where universities and colleges have needlessly and pointlessly put  
training first, a common phenomenon in both the US and Germany in  
this day and age.

As Mike Sperber once told me:

> Wir sind froh, dass die Absolventen schon Java können.  
> Programmieren müssen wir denen halt noch beibringen.
>
I am sure your Dutch-German is good enough to translate this concise  
re-statement of my message.

(I recently ran across a statement by the chairman of CS at UI @  
Chicago Circle that expressed disbelieve that someone would expect  
education from a state university, which -- in his opinion -- had to  
serve the economic interests of the state of Illinois. It is not  
surprising then that companies spent on education of their employees  
because universities and colleges fail.)







On Jul 1, 2008, at 4:02 PM, Jos Koot wrote:

> The idea that companies take their own responsability of training  
> their employees sounds good. In my humble opinion general education  
> (high schools an universities) have, in the first place, the task  
> to widen the horizon of their students, not so much as to prepare  
> students for commercial life. If a company wants people with  
> certain skills, it is the responsability of the company to allow  
> their employees to adquire that skills. It is often heard that  
> educational programs should better fit the needs of commerce. That  
> sound comes from commerce of course, for it saves a lot of money,  
> or rather robs money from the community as a whole. Students are  
> paying for their education. If the education is directed to the  
> needs of commercial life, than commerce should pay both the study  
> and the student. mho.
>
> Some companies do have the policy to hire fresh people and provide  
> trainings for them. In principle that is a good thing, except when  
> it is the company's objective to hire people that can easily be  
> brainwashed. Yes, I am a little bit paranoid.
>
> There should be a golden path between the principal goals of  
> eductation and the more practicle ones. Is there?
> Jos
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Grant Rettke" <grettke at acm.org>
> To: "pltscheme" <plt-scheme at list.cs.brown.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 8:21 PM
> Subject: [plt-scheme] A first experiment with HTDP
>
>
>> At my company, we have a very diverse experience level among all of
>> our employees.
>>
>> In fact, it is common practice to hire people with little to no
>> experience (freshers who may or may not have studied in school or
>> vocational training) and sort of train them on the job. There is
>> always a want to teach the freshers "how to be good", my thought  
>> is to
>> utilize HTDP.
>>
>> I want perform the first experiment in company training by working
>> through HTDP start to finish with two or three freshers. We will have
>> voice-meetings twice a week (along with email and instant messages).
>> There is no time limit.
>>
>> Does this make sense? Is there any more to it?
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