[Edu-sig] Low Enrollments - programming as anit-intellectualism.

[Arthur]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Zelle [mailto:john.zelle at wartburg.edu]
> To: Arthur
> 
> I'm a big bookstore fan too. It's the best place to go when you want to
> learn about some hot new technology ;-). It's not necesarily the place I
> go for a liberal education.

Except that this one was clearly geared toward the Yale academic community -
and exactly where one might go to pursue a liberal education.  What I ended
up with was a book from the math section on Hyerbolic Geometry, of just the
kind that is useful for self-study (the answers to the exercises in the back
;)).  Certainly *not* something I would see in a NYC Barnes and Noble. How
many copies of that can be flying off the shelves?

I am reading the downloadable On Lisp, and have become devoted enough to it
to have decided to invest in a hard, bound copy - which is the kind thing I
went to the Computer section to look for, and the kind of thing - in keeping
with the character of all the other sections I had already visited - I had
expected to find. 

I ended up in Java/C#/Oracle object oriented heaven.

Yes, I do understand that this does not reflect the actual content of a CS
curriculum.  But do think it is significant that the  character of this
section was out of character - for this particular bookstore - to every
other section I had browsed.

It could be a one-off false read.  Perhaps they simply did not happen to
have a buyer on staff that understands the subject area. But they clearly
are the character of bookstore who's economics is not dependent on volumes
of copies they sell of each title they carry.  And even if they were, I
could identify for them probably 15 computer related books of some
importance that have significantly more of a market than the one on
hyperbolic geometry I picked up.  

I think that there was perhaps a false read, by a buyer without an
understanding of the area, that CS types are only interested in what is hot
and new.  But that (mis)perception is to me an interesting data point in
itself.

Art