Re: Why?

[Bill Burns <WBURNS -at- VAX -dot- MICRON -dot- COM>]

John Renish writers:

>>Perhaps this is another example of the cheapening of what now passes for
education and the death of academic rigor. I heard this story over 30 years
ago, but then the answer "Why not?" earned an automatic failure.

Actually, I believe this may be more an example of academic folklore and its
variation.  However, you raise an interesting point here.  Has education really
been cheapened, or have most universities been taxed with the responsibility
of certifying "professionals" rather than maintaining academic standards (or
are these really the same)?  If you look at the university system in the UK,
you'll notice a lack of what passes for serious study in the United States.
Rather than requiring business people to have a university degree, they have
different schools for business curricula altogether.  Our local university
here in Boise has gone as far as to make their mission one of "getting people
into the workplace."  This emphasis indicates to me that the education is not
the issue; the degree is.  For those of us who value education, academia's
rigors, these days, are self-imposed.

As far as the story goes, perhaps the correctness of the answer "Why not?"
depends upon the bias of the philosopher rather than on any inherent
truthfulness in the response.  Anyone who asks the question "Why?" is begging
for a BS response anyway.  He or she might elicit some clever answers, but
the form of the response would lack any real point since the question itself
is vague and incomplete.

Bill Burns                            *
Assm. Technical Writer/Editor         * LIBERTY, n. One of imagination's most
Micron Technology, Inc.               * precious possessions.
Boise, ID                             *
WBURNS -at- VAX -dot- MICRON -dot- COM                 *                     Ambrose Bierce