Aaron,

The quote you cite could be -- and in hardly different form has been -- used
by college students to describe everything from Latin to literature, the
entire spectrum of which anyone who has been a college student will
eventually recognize as valuable not as an aid to employment but as
fundamental to the understanding which turns a job into a career and perhaps
a profession.

Altering Squeak merely to make it more appealing to sophomores (in any sense
of the word) makes as much sense as adding some good ol' Roman profanity to
the Latin curriculum just to spice it up a bit.  Less, in fact.  Which of
course is not to say Squeak ought not to evolve, but that its evolution
should strive toward excellence, not merely acceptance.

Gary Fisher


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aaron Lanterman" <lanterma at ece.gatech.edu>
To: "The general-purpose Squeak developers list"
<squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 1:31 AM
Subject: Squeak in college education


>
> Part of the Georgia Tech culture is that people like to complain. (This is
> true for the faculty as much as the students.) Anyway, having a good sense
> of humor about these things, I was peeking at
> http://www.studentsreview.com/GA/GT_c.html and ran across this quote:
>
> 'Before I came I heard the school was good for Computer Science -- it is
> afterall the biggest single major at the school. However, this is not a
> Computer Science school, and they teach you useless languages such as
> "Squeak", which you'll never use again in your life.'
>
> [Aside to Mark Guzdial: If hoping you have a good sense of humor about
> this... :) ]
>
> This got me thinking... what would it take to convince college students
> that Squeak is as cool as we think it is? Make them understand that C++ is
> not the bees knees?
>
> - Aaron
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>
> Dr. Aaron Lanterman, Asst. Prof.       Voice:  404-385-2548
> School of Electrical and Comp. Eng.    Fax:    404-894-8363
> Georgia Institute of Technology        E-mail: lanterma at ece.gatech.edu
> Mail Code 0250                         Web:
users.ece.gatech.edu/~lanterma
> Atlanta, GA 30332                      Office: GCATT 334B
>
>
>