Gnorb;
I read your message and my son who is 14 and I trotted over to HHC to enroll for the Unix administrators class. Let me tell you a not so pretty story.
First, I am 66 years old so I don't need college credit. I tried to sign up to audit the class but was told I had to wait until the day after the class started to see if there was an opening for me. No problem, paying customers always come first, free loaders get in line.
Next my son. My son is 14 years old. He will be attending the CAT (Center for Advanced Technology) at Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg this year as a freshman. The CAT school is a magnet school for kids who are good in math, physics,chemistry and computers. Enrollment is by lottery, with the kid's who have the best grades being accepted first.
My son writes programs in Basic, C and C++. I'll brag that he writes some of the nicest code I have seen, well commented and efficient. Recently he has also become good at programing in Macromedia Flash and Active X. He runs SuSE 8.0 and OpenBSD on different drives on his computer which he also built.
When he was in the 7th grade we lived in Alaska and he attended the University of Alaska Anchorage for a Sophomore class in "C" Programing. He got a "B". The reason I'm including all this information is to establish the fact that the kid has some knowledge of computing. I thought the Administrators class would be ideal for him.
We left my house in Clearwater at 9:30 this morning headed for HCC. I registered first and then it was my son's turn. The nice lady at the registration counter took his paperwork but said we needed to see an advisor. OK, off we went. The advisor referred us to a councilor who immediately started to throw up road blocks in our path. First the kid had to take an ACP test. Great, he's a high school freshman and he has to take a college placement test. It doesn't seem to matter that he has performed well in a university setting before. Next, he has to get a letter from his high school granting permission for him to take this class. Then finally, he has to go before a review board and see if they, (in their infinite wisdom) will allow me to spend some $200 to have the kid take a class with me.
You know, I moved to Florida from Alaska last year. I know you guys in the "lower 48" as we used to refer to the continental US are bogged down in bureaucracy but is this normal?
HCC doesn't sell merchandise as far as I could tell. That only leaves one thing they can sell which is a service. Selling a service requires people to whom to sell the service. If you make it difficult, almost impossible, for people to avail themselves of the service which you are selling, you usually don't stay in business very long, unless of course you happen to be a government agency.
I ask you guy's what harm is there in my spending $200 for my kid to sit in a classroom and learn something about Unix? If he can't pass the course, who is harmed? And finally, is this the way things are done around here all of the time?
Joe Ryan
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 8/2/2002 at 5:23 AM Norbert Cartagena wrote:
>If some of you are between jobs or are looking to expand your knowledge,
>then HCC is the place to go. Not bad, IMHO. These look like good courses
>for anyone interested in making a carreer out of knowing Linux, and the
>teacher's not a bad guy - certainly knows his stuff (reads like a fiend!).
>
>Gnorb
>
>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject: HCC Linux/Unix courses
>Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2002 10:15:50 -0400
>From: Wayne Pollock <pollock@acm.org>
>Organization: Hillsborough Community College
>To: gnorb@tampabay.rr.com
>
>Norb,
>
>Please pass the word about my HCC courses on the
>Dale Mabry campus that start August 22:
>
>CGS 1760 Introduction to Unix
>CGS 2763 Unix Administration I
>CGS 2764 Unix Administration II
>
>These courses teach Linux Administration. They are 3 credit
>courses that meet once a week (twice a week for CGS 2763)
>Until December. The fee is about $53 per credit, plus a
>one time HCC application fee of around $20, plus a textbook.
>There may also be a lab fee of around $40 per course. (Note
>other schools charge considerable more than HCC!)
>
>Not interested in a degree? Lack time to go to every class?
>You can reserve a seat by signing up for Audit.
>
>The detailed class syllabus for each class is available on-line
>at:
> http://www.hccfl.edu/pollock/
>
>Registration has already started, and you can register by phone.
>Enrollment is limited to around 20 students per class. Check
>the main HCC web page for details.
>
>In the administration classes, students are given blank
>removable) hard disks. They will learn to install, configure,
>manage, and maintain the server. (Solaris is also discussed,
>but is not hands-on.)
>
>Although there are many books you can learn from on your own,
>There are many benefits to our classes: root access to a machine
>you can trash and not worry about it, explanination of concepts
>and not just some "how-to" collection, access to a knowledgeable
>instructor and fellow setudents.
>
>Thanks!
>
>-Wayne Pollock, pollock@acm.org
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