Post
by TerryKing » Mon Feb 11, 2002 6:29 am
James, you're asking most of the right questions.<p>In my opinion, a 2-year associates degree in electronics is a good path, for a few different reasons: (1) You really get into electronics quickly; a good program will have you immersed in
circuits soon, and you will design and build and debug real stuff. So, you'll find out soon if you REALLY like this stuff. (2) You get to decide pretty soon if this is your field, without 2 years of undergrad courses, and finally some EE before you realize you really want to be an outdoor person. (3) A real good place to start a serious get-a-lot-out-of-it EE degree is 2 to 4 years of serious study AND work in real electronics, including something serious in the optoelectronics area, medical instrumentation, and RF communications. <p>I am enraged (do I mean that? Yes!) at the stupid dumb clueless bureaucrats and education researchers who took all the TOOLS out of our high schools, and all the electricity/electronics too! Their STUPID IDEA? Smart kids should concentrate on their studies and graduate from high school and go to Engineering school for 4 to 6 years, and THEN they can design stuff for OTHER people to build, while being professional and clueless about how to Solder, what's a 6-32 or 4-40 screw, what hardware holds good electronics together mechanically, what's the difference between aluminum, brass and Maple, and how do you cut and join and finish those materials, anyway? Grrr..!<p>I have been an Engineer at IBM, and taught Electronics in a 2-year Electronics Technology program in New York. Now I'm mostly trying to teach 4th to 8th grade kids about electronics and robotics and photography and materials, all in the usual school where all the tools were disposed of 5 to 8 years ago. These kids will go on to the high school of their choice, with the Vermont ones being tool-less unless they happen to go to one with a "Tech Center". And then , if they're smart and get good grades, they will be forcefully discouraged from taking any shop courses Over There with those dummies. If they're lucky they'll get into Hanover High School, next to Dartmouth college, like my stepson, where they actually still have machine tools and courses in Design where kids build machines and vehicles and actually cut stuff with things that are sharp. <p>James, do some real electronics. Build some stuff. Find out what companies in your area use electronics or design with them, including industries with process controls, machine shops with CAD/CAM systems, hospital electronics labs, wind energy companies. Everything of any complexity today has microcomputers and software, and electronics/interfacing stuff in it.<p>My 4 kids all have good jobs designing stuff, from instruments, to custom microprocessors, to financial data systems, to antibiotic precursor molecules. The jobs are out there. The fact that your high school guidance counsellors don't know about them is good, because you'll learn more looking around yourself. <p>Go for it. Do it. And if you find you really don't like it, if you decide that you can't take a non-working electronics circuit as an interesting challenge instead of a frustration that pisses you off, then I hope you get a good job as a Forest Ranger and are happy.
Terry King ...In The Woods In Vermont
[email protected]
homepages.together.net/~tking