Send Ken To College

Everyday I find myself sitting in a classroom wondering why the hell I even bothered spending $10,000 a semester on my undergrad education.  At the very best I may have gotten $5,000 worth of education and the majority of that was NOT in Computer Science.  The value came from the gen-eds that I had to take and maybe some of the math courses.  I suspect that I learned more at the community college than I did at Mt. Mercy in regards to computer science.

The really sad part of it is that even with new faculty, it is not know whether the department is anymore worthwhile.  They may need a few years to get on track however they can get a start by hiring adjuncts that have the remotest clue about what they are doing.

My stepdaughter recently took a Visual Basic class where she learned almost nothing.  She spent a few hours with me and learned as much as she had in the 10 weeks of class.  Did they pay me for doing their job?  Hell no!  She filed a complaint with the provost and the department head.  Her complaint was pretty much dismissed because she got an A- in the class.

Quite honestly an a good grade does not mean much if you don’t learn anything.  I have a transcript full of good grades to prove it.  Everyday I sit in a graduate level class and find out just how much I never learned.  This is not stuff that was above and beyond my classroom learning, things I could have pursued on my own.  This is stuff that I presumably paid to learn when I signed up for the class.

The sad part of it is that of the $40,000 or so that I spent on getting the degree, I could have spent a few thousand on books and some more on another computer and I could probably have come out with at least as good of an education.  I suspect it would actually have been better.  With a decent printer I could have even managed to churn me out a piece of paper attesting to my smartness and not had to spend all of that money.

If I could figure out how to sue and get back some of the money that I wasted, I most certainly would be doing that.

Have you ever been running at high speed, mentally speaking, and then had the task you were working on come to an end?  It is like the rug is pulled from under you.  Imagine a week when you consume nothing but chocolate bars and Mt. Dew, this gives you a massive and constant sugar rush, then you stop cold turkey.  The sugar disappears!

Finals week is now over and after expending considerable mental energy for the last several weeks, I now have nothing that I have to direct it to.  My sugar rush is dissipating and there is an empty mental hole that I have fallen in.  I am told that this feeling is not unlike what drug users and alcoholics go through when they no longer have access to their chosen drug.

If you don’t understand it, don’t worry.  I tried to explain it to my wife but I am not certain that she knows what I am talking about either.  She just looked at me like I belonged in the psych ward.

Here I sit with a Coca Cola in my hand and a little Warren Zevon on the stereo contemplating what to do until classes start again. 

I know what I could be working on, the project I had to demo today.  The damn thing was working up to the point where I had coded it right up until 30 minutes before demo time.  With three instructors sitting in to watch and score my presentation, errors galore when I attempted to run my software.

I was assured by the lead instructor that functional software was not absolutely required as long as I could discuss my design and how I got to the place where I was at.  I managed to pull that off but what I don’t think the instructors really got was the fact that the program beat me.  I really do not like when this happens.

It would be easy to just let this project go since I have now been graded on it but but due to my competitive nature, it just can not happen.  This program will be finished…someday!  I may put it aside until I graduate but this is not over.