[SATLUG] Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage

[Al Castanoli]

I was a product of a public education, and it didn't keep me from
retiring as a cryptologic linguist, or earning a degree in computer
science (even if it did take 10 years, traveling around the world on
active duty).  The only way to program computers when I was in high
school was to join the math club and take field trips to the Corps of
Engineers.  With over 800 graduating seniors, only 7 of us were allowed
to take physics and 12 were allowed to take physiology. I joined the
math club and took physics.  Pre-calculus wasn't even offered.  If I'd
just sat back and taken what the state doled out, I'd've probably never
gotten into a technical field, but who says school kids need to be spoon
fed an education?  With access to the Internet and all these college
libraries online now, the knowledge is out there for the asking.

The advanced training courses I took in the military weren't given out
just for the asking, either - you had to earn them.  The college
programs I got into were competitive, too - you didn't automatically get
accepted just by being in the top 25 percent of your class (like UTSA is
considering).  With the exceptions of my physics and chemistry teachers
in high school, I got a pretty decent education in spite of my teachers.
I was never motivated by an educator.  The folks who inspired me were
members of the local amateur radio club, the librarians I worked with in
my after school job as a reference page, and the physically impaired
graduate students for whom I looked up references when they were working
on their masters' theses.  Nobody threw money at them and told them to
get educated, either.

Throwing money at schools and telling them to spoon feed an education to
their charges doesn't work - I was in one of the "open school"
experiments in the 8th grade and we learned very little unless we were
motivated within.

Al "hopping off my soap box" Castanoli

On Sun, 2007-08-26 at 15:31 -0500, Hector Bojorquez wrote:
> DAMN right Demeler!
> And double goes for the state legislature...
> Last go around they decided to "fund" T-STEM academies (Technology Science
> Engineering Mathematics)- they funded 8 such academies across the state---
> I've been involved with such initiatives before (in another lifetime)  and
> they are always the same thing.. a way of saying "We're doing something"
> instead of reforming or re-structuring an ENTIRE system.
> 
> I've worked with plenty of kids from all-sorts of socio-economic levels and
> I never met a single one that wasn't Wowed or interested in science and
> technology when taught right....and it pisses me off when the state doesn't
> act like EVERY school should be doing something about it.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 8/26/07, Borries Demeler <demeler at biochem.uthscsa.edu> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > What REALLY drives me crazy about this debate is that we are not
> > educating
> > > our kids (not to compete) to LEAD in the next century.
> > > Our kids should not be thinking that they will be competing for tech
> > > jobs that will inevitably be shipped out... they should be educated to
> > be
> > > innovators, researchers, and great technological thinkers.
> > > And that's not happening.
> >
> > Here is what *is* happening:
> >
> > We struggle to get research funding for important research (NSF, NIH,
> > etc...),
> > only to educate foreigners. > 80% of all PHD graduate applicants are
> > either
> > from China, India, Pakistan, Japan or Europe. Domestic applicants in my
> > field:
> >
> > 1. are outnumbered 9:1 by foreigners
> > 2. are generally less well qualified than their foreign counterparts
> > 3. if they are qualified, competition for them is fierce and other
> > schools generally get first tab (Stanford, Yale, Northwestern, UC,
> > Princeton, etc)
> >
> > We are lucky if we get any qualified candidates at all, foreign or not.
> > If they are foreigners, we have to compete with industry. I just lost
> > a very qualified postdoc from CHina because of H1B visa issues.
> > My question: Why are we educating foreigners when scarce US government
> > funding should be used to educate domestic students? Hint: read Hector's
> > paragraph above....education starts in kindergarden. A typical example
> > was the last local election when San Antonians (predictably) opted for
> > the "lowering tax" candidate instead of boosting primary education.
> > Arghh...
> > -b.
> > --
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