[nfbcs] Trade schools

Wed Mar 27 20:57:51 UTC 2013

hi,

oh yea denise,
i put in the time and effort at vatterott and received a's and one b and 
when it came time for placement assistance, the man flat out told me he 
wasn't going to risk his high placement record on someone with a disability.
Bryan Schulz

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dr. Denise M Robinson" <deniserob at gmail.com>
To: "NFB in Computer Science Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2013 12:38 PM
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Trade schools

>I am not sure you can completely blame the school...you said it John....you
> get out what you put in.......you can go to the same school and someone
> learn a lot and another not.....
> Denise
>
> On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 1:16 PM, John G. Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu> wrote:
>
>> By trade school do you mean for-profit tech schools  like the University
>> of Phoenix   or Upper Iowa University? I think state-sponsored technical
>> colleges are okay. But I have a story about the for-profit places.
>>
>> A few years ago, I talked the owner of the small consulting business I 
>> was
>> working for into contacting my state's Department of Vocational Rehab and
>> having them send over someone to fill a vacancy. They sent over a
>> middle-aged man who had lost his voice in a car accident and therefore 
>> had
>> lost his job as a salesman. This man had gone back to school at one of
>> these for-profit tech schools for a degree in computer programming. On 
>> his
>> first day, I gave him an assignment and came back a few hours later to 
>> see
>> how he was doing. He hadn't even gotten started. He didn't know how to 
>> get
>> started. So I figured it was my mistake and I'd given too difficult of an
>> assignment. So I gave him an easier one. When I came back a while later, 
>> he
>> hadn't gotten started on that either. So I asked him to write a program
>> counting from one to ten. Just display the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 
>> 8,
>> 9, and 10.  He couldn't do that either. He was fired before the day was
>> done.
>>
>> It was heartbreaking. He already had to deal with the accident and it's
>> aftermat. Now he was going to have to come to grips with the knowledge 
>> that
>> the effort he'd put into putting his life back together  was wasted.  I
>> have no idea what happened to him but I only hope he somehow managed to
>> pick himself up off the mat one more time and give it another try.
>>
>> There was no way I could excuse or even hide his lack of knowledge. It 
>> was
>> embarrassing for me but mostly I just felt bad for the guy. And it was 
>> bad
>> for Voc Rehab because there was no way my company was ever going to work
>> with them again.
>>
>> I talked to the guy toward the end of the day abouthow his lessons 
>> worked.
>> It sounded pretty much like a normal classroom situation. He sat through
>> lectures, got assignments, tests. It was unclear how he managed to pass
>> without learning anything. Honestly, I  wanted to tell him that he should
>> demand his money back.
>>
>> I always say that life is like a vending machine, you don't get anything
>> out of it unless you put something in. Maybe the school worked that way. 
>> I
>> know the guy didn't deliberately avoid learning anything. But maybe he
>> didn't try very hard either. But I do not think that is what happened. I
>> think he was ripped off. I think the school was just a scam to seperate
>> particularly vulnerable people from their money.
>>
>> On 03/26/2013 09:38 AM, Tracy Carcione wrote:
>>
>>> Pursuant to our discussion a few weeks ago about whether a 4-year CS
>>> degree is required to find employment, I wonder about the results from
>>> trade schools.  I hear ads for many places that say they will teach a
>>> person programming.  Are any of them worthwhile?
>>> I am trying to advise a young blind man who wants to get into 
>>> programming.
>>>   My first piece of advice was that he should join this list, where he
>>> will
>>> get lots of different perspectives.  He's thinking he'll go to a 
>>> community
>>> college, then get a 4-year CS degree.  Sounds fine.  But, with the huge
>>> cost of 4-year colleges these days, I was wondering if he might do 
>>> equally
>>> well, and be less in debt, if he went the trade school route. Or is that
>>> all a huge scam?
>>> Tracy
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> *Dr Denise*
>
> Denise M. Robinson, TVI, Ph.D.
> CEO, TechVision, LLC
> Specialist in Technology/Training/Teaching for blind/low vision
> 423-573-6413
>
> Website with hundreds of informational articles & lessons on PC, Office
> products, Mac, iPad/iTools and more, all done with
> keystrokes: www.yourtechvision.com
>
> "The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who is
> doing it." --Chinese Proverb
>
> Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid: humans are incredibly
> slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond
> imagination.
> --Albert Einstein
>
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