Jim Lux wrote:
At 03:27 PM 1/30/2006, H.Vidal, Jr. wrote:
The emphasis on Graduate students is presumably applicable for college
age students. And the emphasis on athletic events is nearly universal
(plus kids really do need the break, it seems).
Actually, I was using graduate as a verb.. the objective is to get
students out the door at the other end. Pass the exit exam, get them
accepted to college, what have you.
Well, what I would ideally like is to institutionalize HPC for this
school.
That's really more core goal.
And so it will have life after my son's tenure here.
And that is a noble goal. Hopefully, all this discussion has prompted
some ideas on how to get there?
Yes, indeed. I have found some excellent references here.
And some excellent perspectives on the problem at large,
that is, technical education (tech meaning science/math bent)
in high schools.
There was an excellent article in "The American Scholar"
(http://www.pbk.org/pubs/amscholar.htm) a few years back about how
industry has hoodwinked the public school system (including at the
collegiate level) into providing free training for their software.
Do I take it (could not get article) that this implies free education
in particular commercial applications conditions students to respond
to these applications as the 'one true way' instead of being open
minded to other technical options?
No, the article was more along the lines that schools spend precious
class hours doing what is essentially user training for a single
application, rather than generic skills. The thrust was (this IS Phi
Beta Kappa, after all) that society would be better served by spending
tax dollars to give students a good liberal arts education, and let the
employers pay for training people to use a particular software package.
I'll try and find the exact reference (oddly<grin>, the JPL library
doesn't have it, and I probably threw the issue away a few years ago)
Oh. Yes, this is the common case, but you must have noted that
when many people ask 'do you know/do computers?' they
really mean 'do you know how to use X/Y/Z platform?'
Most non-technical people (and a large number of tech as well, sadly)
do not distinguish between 'machine theory' in the larger sense and
'being able to type/save/load files' in the near-term applied sense.
This has led me to many conversations like this:
'So, Nando, you do computers?'
'No, not really.........'
Because most people assume that 'do computers' means Windows
or 'selling PCs' or 'Excel and Word.' If you tell them you think
about distributed knowledge representation, or how to parcel
computations, or about the intrinsic limits of digital vs. analog
representation, you get these great stares.....
Again, this may generally be the case, but if one has the fortune of
being
at a great school, then it's time to build opportunities. So this is not
an average school, but it can be made better with a bit of
participation by
interested parents.....
Indeed.. and I'd say that most schools benefit by interested parents.
All to the better if they are math/science oriented, and if a sustaining
program can be created. It does happen. It would be interesting to
look at other successful programs and see what their origins were.
Athletic boosters have been around a long time, so that's not a good
model, but perhaps a theater arts or music program that came into
being? Or even Science Fairs (which are out of fashion, these days).
Well, as I have noted to exhaustion, I consider our family to be *very*
lucky to be associated with a high school that places more emphasis
on its math team than on its cheerleading team.
Thanks for your comments.
hv
James Lux, P.E.
Spacecraft Radio Frequency Subsystems Group
Flight Communications Systems Section
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 161-213
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
tel: (818)354-2075
fax: (818)393-6875
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