>The kind of education you seem to advocate is available at vo-tech schools, more or less. You did say something about family pressure, which would be a common problem for anyone from a white-collar background (whether or not that includes you) who wants to attend a trade school. Many vo-techs are probably as bad as many colleges. But that kind of education might still deserve more respect from some employers and parents. They won't teach writing, though.
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>The better universities are much less rigid in their course requirements, I think. That's because they are less bureaucratic, and have more confidence in the abilities of their students. Unfortunately, they tend to be more expensive. Nothing's fair.
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>Now I'm prolonging it. Oh, well.

Tech schools are probably an extreme example of what I'm saying, but that's about what I mean. What I'm advocating is that be the normal, accepted route as a bachelor degree is today. Beyond that, it should be experience that is important.

It's kind of like the school being the apprentice level where you learn the craft, maybe even work on some real-world projects with the supervision of the professors. Once you have the basics down, you graduate and become a journeyman. You go out into the world and work at real jobs and get real experience. When you have enough experience, you take an exam, or present a project, or something like that to show you've mastered the craft. Then you're a master.

It's a simple system. Worked fine for other crafts in the past. Why not computers?

-Michelle