[Tutor] Need directions toward programming...

[Damian]

Just go to the "4th" paragraph to read my main concern.
 Hi I'm a 18 years old student (well not for now), who's interested in 
programming and everything you can do with it, but I got a problem, honestly 
is more like a misdirection problem, I live in Mexico and to be honest the 
studies about programming sucks!. 
 When I got in my 1st year in the best technical high school, the first 
language a teacher show us was quick basic and even after 6 months of 
classes everything we did was 5 programs that do simple arithmetic 
operations, but that's not the worst part after 3 years at the last 
semester, we needed to write a system that manage databases for practical 
uses (well not really, it was just to pass the class) for the final grades, 
but the only language we knew more or less, and that was enough to pass the 
class (just because of the graphical design!) was Visual Basic 6.0, you can 
imagine the troubles a lived declaring constant changing variables (a = b, b 
= b + 1...), after some time of studying complex syntax's and variable types 
declarations I finished just a few forms (scripts), but at least I was proud 
that they were practical in real life, I was writing an Algebra learning 
software. The day of the examination came and I was confident that my work 
was incomplete, I was sure that I'll failed the subject but then I received 
the news, I got an 8 of 10, that was great considering my small program, I 
tough that maybe the teacher appreciated my effort on the code but then I 
saw the others students grades and their works, I was shocked, I couldn't 
believe it, the people who finished their project got an 10 or 9, but that's 
not the reason of my anger, they got a great grade for a work that was 
just...fine, the only thing that was at a level of the grade was the design; 
the project itself contained a lot of bugs, and the teacher didn't take that 
in consideration for the grades, I was pissed off !, I asked myself how is 
possible that a programming language teacher qualified the projects without 
taken into account the bugs, I was really angry, in that moment I realized 
that all the time that I spent in programming in that school was a waste...
 That's why I'm concerned about my education, in the beginning I write 
"well, not for now", I was speaking about a decision a made just before 
getting in an University, I decide to study by myself, I tough "if the 
educational system sucks, then I'll have to take my education on my hands", 
and here I am now, oh! sorry for the long post I think I was motivated or 
something, the real goal of my post is to find some direction toward my 
education in this field, I'm aiming to become a System Analyst and 
Programmer (I don't know how is named that occupation in US), and I want to 
create a revolutionary system in this city replacing the high cost windows 
systems of the companies with a Linux based one; in the University they're 
still teaching Visual Basic on the last semesters, that's why I want to take 
the most of my time learning dynamic languages instead of the proprietary 
ones.
 When I finished the python tutorial I was amazed about the simplicity of 
the code, but because I got no real life experience, I don't know what can I 
do with this knowledge, I know that practicing and reading code examples is 
a must!, but I would like to know real life experiences of some people 
toward programming with Python and toward programming in general, and if you 
can recommend me some books or tutorials of python (ex. real life examples) 
or toward the technical aspect of programming (multiple inheritance, control 
flow, etc.), so I can get an idea of the whole aspect of language 
programming.
 Really thanks for taking your time to answer my post, and sorry if I got 
some awful grammar errors, it's been a while since I writed in English.
 Note: I added my Visual Basic incomplete project just if you have curiosity 
about my work.
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