Date: Nov 4, 2012 8:38 AM
Subject: Re: 34% Drop in Computer Science Degrees in CT
Dom Rosa Posted: Nov 3, 2012 7:01 PM
>We Must Help Students Reach Technology's Cutting Edge
>By JEANETTE HORAN | OTHER OPINION
>The Hartford Courant
>5:37 p.m. EDT, November 2, 2012
>We need to renew this enthusiasm.
Yet again, I am painfully reminded of the WW I era French fighting doctrine of "Elan". This was the theory that the right mental attitude, of ardent patriotism and the will to win, would be enough to carry French infantry through German machine guns.
It was not. The flower of French manhood was mowed down in their tens of thousands, and the French have never recovered. What those contemptible "Chateaux Generals" seemed not to understand and never learned is that elan does not substitute for a full stomach, ample ammunition and, above all, able leadership.* Quite the reverse. In other words, it is victory that produces elan, not elan victory.
So, here we are, warm and cozy in the 21st century, shaking our heads at those WW I generals with their funny mustaches, marveling at how stupid they were, even as we commit the very same mistake. It is not enthusiasm that will cure what ails American education. Curing American education is what will generate enthusiasm.
And the cure begins with...(GS, where are you?)
No representation without taxation.
*This was something the French once understood. Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the ablest of able military leaders, once observed that "An army travels on its stomach." Mon Dieu! How did the French fall from Napoleon Bonaparte to Joseph Joffre? Hmmm. Maybe the decline of France began much before WW I; Napoleon Bonaparte, himself, was not even French, "He spoke with a marked Corsican accent and never learned to spell properly."
Message was edited by: Haim