[aiethics] Tell kids to go to college?

[Brenda R. Freedman]

Alicebot AI Ethics Committee - http://www.alicebot.org


As a mother who has a son involved in the IT market, I
would like to add my comments. As Richard said he
somewhawt conflicted as a parent to offer advice, and
I know that that I feel the same things as Richard
described. I also feel that the benefits of being
involved in a free software program far outweighs
anything that I could advocate. It goes beyond what I
could ever hope as a parent.

Brenda
--- Richard Wallace <rwallace@best.com> wrote:
> Alicebot AI Ethics Committee -
> http://www.alicebot.org
> 
> 
> As a father and someone who has had the "benefit" of
> a college education (all the way through the Ph.D.)
> I am somewhat conflicted over the issue of whether
> to tell kids to go to college.  
> 
> In my opinion there is a lot more to be gained
> spending their young adult years working, and
> possibly getting involved in a free software project
> like ALICE (I am talking about kids going into
> computer science, which are the ones I meet most
> often), than working on a degree that has
> questionable value.
> 
> I never made enough to pay back my student loans,
> and I can't in good conscience advise anyone to go
> into debt in order to finance their education.  In
> the long run you'll be better off working, saving
> and investing than spending your money on tuition. 
> And the tuition is horrendous here in the U.S.  
> 
> The worst thing is that colleges are not doing their
> job of training students for the real world.  In
> this job market a Microsoft Certification is more
> valuable than a Ph.D. in computer science. I
> seriously doubt that most C.S. professors realize
> how hard it would be for them to find jobs on the
> open market, because they just don't have the skills
> that employers want.  
> 
> The conventional wisdom has always been that
> "education is the key to success" but here in the
> U.S. the higher education system is so corrupt, so
> expensive, and so out of touch with reality that I
> have a hard time advising young people to go to
> college.  I think they will learn much more working
> with us on free software.
> 
> Rich
> 
> 
> Www.AliceBot.Org
> "Cooler than Humans."---TIME Magazine.
> 
> 
> 
>
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