Re: Remember secretaries? (was RE: Proof that content is moreimportant than style)
Often cited as a reason - for not increasing the number of Humanities
courses within a given Engineering curriculum - is that the minimum amount
of 'core' engineering courses required to meet professional standards,
already consumes close to (the average) four years of study.
Hence the five year engineering degree.
Also, Engineering students are usually spoon-fed rigid theories, and
practices, that must fit exactly with-in the box. This makes it very
difficult for such students to express original thinking, and creativity -
as is cultivated, and encouraged, within the Humanities.
Excuse me? Engineers aren't supposed to be creative? Really?
Add to this,
pre-conceived notions (from with-in Technology programs) towards
non-technology courses, as being inferior to those that could enhance
employability (such as programming languages, or management).
Then, there are people like myself, who (from the start) loathed
essay-writing; and who would not have taken any opportunity to improve on
writing skills, even if it had been encouraged while in Engineering.
Perhaps forcing engineering students to go slumming over in the Humanities department is a bit much. In the example I offered, though (Cornell), the requirement for clear expression was imposed within the core engineering curriculum, by engineering professors, grading engineering assignments. So I hardly see how your objection would apply in that circumstance. (Yes, I realize you were responding to a description of the Chicago curriculum, not the Cornell curriculum. I am trying to add information, not attack your argument.)
Dick
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RE: Remember secretaries? (was RE: Proof that content is moreimportant than style): From: JB Foster
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