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August 29, 2003
Friday Five
1. Are you going to school this year?
Well our school year is about halfway through (starts in Feb, ends in Dec) so I guess not (apart from taking my son ...). Out of interest, we don't use the phase 'going to school' after high school. School system here is:
Pre-school (optional, 3-4 years old),
Primary School, which includes:
Kindergarten (compulsary, 5 years old),
1st class through to 6th class (compulsary, 6 to 11 years old)
High School, which includes:
Years 7 to 10 (compulsary, 12 - 15 years old)
Years 11 and 12 (optional, 16 - 17 years old)
You can then proceed to TAFE (vocational courses, certificates, diplomas) or University (degrees). Normally Year 12 is a prerequisite for university. Each state has a different system for marking the final exams and they do not translate well between states. Some school now offer an independant (and much better regarded by universities) system called the IB (International Baccalaureate)
2. If no, when did you graduate?
Which time? In my long career, I have managed to accumulate:
* BSc (Bachelor of Science) - University of New South Wales (UNSW), major in Computer Science, minor in Geography.
* MCom (Master of Commerce) - UNSW, major in Information Systems
* MCogSc (Master of Cognitive Science) - UNSW, major in Artificial Intelligence and Philosophy
* MBA (Master of Business Administration) - Deakin University, major in Technical (Engineering) Management
* GradCertContEd (Certificate in Adult Education) - University of New England, teaching certificate.
The most amazing thing is, after all that education, I still can't spell and my grammar is terrible :-)
3. What are/were your favorite school subjects?
Actually I can bore people to death by being long winded about a lot of things. I liked operating systems (Unix V6 with AT&T source code) and more recently AI. I occasionally teach (usually at TAFE) programming, systems analysis, basic business courses, and share market analysis.
4. What are/were your least favorite school subjects?
I hated French (did it until Year 10) and regretted it when I got to France and could read but not speak (or at least noone could understand me).
5. Have you ever had a favorite teacher? Why was he/she a favorite?
Well I was about ready to throw in the towel in the MCogSc course due to the heavy humanistic philosophy (Dennett is a twit), I talked to a friend (who happens to be a priest) about the conflict between my religious convictions and the humanistic course material, he offered to introduce me to some new bloke who was going to be lecturing soon. After one meeting, I was encouraged enough to keep going. This bloke not only lectured in that course but actually went on to become the Head of School and my supervisor.
Posted by Ozguru at August 29, 2003 10:08 PM
Comments
Posted by: Jivha at August 29, 2003 10:08 PM
Posted by: Melodrama at August 29, 2003 10:08 PM
