Posted on 05/17/2008 6:18:29 PM PDT by Dutchgirl
I have been checking out various on-line IT courses for my college age home schooled son. I found this site for $149.00 that features a full menu of options for a flat one year membership,
SECURITY+ CERTIFICATION A+ CERTIFICATION
ACCOUNTANCY ADOBE
CISCO CLAIT
CONTACT MANAGEMENT COREL
DATABASES DESKTOP
DTP ECDL
E-QUALS GRAPHICS
I-NET+ CERTIFICATION INTERNET
LOTUS MCSE
MICROSOFT MOS
NETWORK+ CERTIFICATION NOVELL
PROGRAMMING SERVER+ CERTIFICATION
SOFT SKILLS UNIX
WEB DEVELOPMENT
and the other one in the link--whose typos on their web page do not inspire me with confidence.(My typos I attribute to my Saturday ration od Sam Adams)
Bottom Line: I have a great kid who wants to earn internet security cerifications without having to attend four years of liberal mind control meaningless classes. We are having a hard time wading through course descriptions to figure out where to get started. Soliciting freeper help and input.
He went to college, and has a few upper level certifications (he's an RHCE, which is a very difficult test to pass as the second half is a timed live test on a broken system).
Here is a review of the test to give you an idea:
http://www.linux.com/feature/35283
He would tell your son to do what he loves. Buy or find old systems being thrown away, as previous folks have mentioned, set up networks, build clusters, install new operating systems, break it all, fix it all, and do it all over again.
At various times, my guy has had everything from ancient Macs to an old Alpha Server at home (iirc, it was about the size of a dishwasher). Sparcs (Ultra & pre-Ultra), SGI, some HP Apollo machines running HP-UX, endless PCs, and he knows every last one of them inside and out. He's run AIX, HP-UX, Tru-64, various versions of Linux, every version of Windows except ME, DOS, SCO-Unix (:(), and others.
He says that some people he works with have degrees, some don't. Some have certifications, some don't. But either way, it is key to master what he wants to know - to really be able to do it and do it well.
He also suggests that if your son goes to college (and he should if he possiby can), he should sign up for as many user accounts on as many systems at school as he can and learn as much as possible. Those accounts are free to students and they can be great way to get real-life experience on systems that may otherwise be hard to get access to.
While he's in college, your son could work to get certifications if he'd like to, or at least build the foundation for doing so once he gets out.
Good luck to your son & congratulations to you! It sounds like you have a great couple of kids!
My husband is an IT manager and hires all the time. Your son needs the degree (at least a 2 year degree.) He can get a two year degree (A.S.) that specializes in IT, or he can get a 4 year degree in something like MIS or Computer Science, and add certs if he wants.
As far as the “liberal” stuff, he can go to a community college for his general requirements and you don’t get all the liberal leaning profs you’d find at a larger university.
If he goes for the 4 year degree, his courses in his major won’t have a liberal slant (how do you make a course in programming or network administration “liberal.”)
Have him seek out internships while he’s going to school (even unpaid internship) that will give him experience. Certs with no experience are useless. Degree with an intership will get you much further.
Do the college or community college thing and ignore the over inflated certificate nonsense. Stare run colleges are a MUCH better deal.
We homeschooled, but "threw our son into the pit of filth" (your words, not mine) when he was 15 (he dual enrolled in college, never went to high school.) Going to college and still living at home during your high school years is a great thing. They come home and discuss what has been taught, and you can have meaningful conversations how to discern a prof's agenda, a text's bias, etc.
Our son graduated college at 19, and is in grad school. His faith is strong, he has not been seduced to "the dark side," politically or spiritually.
"Bring up a child in the way he should go...and he will not depart from it." We've raised them to know the Truth, and the Truth sets them free. They can be exposed to "filth" and know it is "filth." You can't isolate them from the world forever.
Yeah I guess I don't understand how a college class in psychology will ruin a kid...it's more likely sitting next to a chick with no bra and a halter top, that's a problem. However if they have been raised right and haven't been sheltered, it will all be ok. After all, when they graduate they will be working next to that chick.
I recruit for a big 4 technology firm and you must have a bachelor’s to even apply through my recruiting firm.
“There’s absolutely no reason that this exact type of arrangement can’t work with young men getting started in life.”
It’s a matter of motivation. If you are content to live in mom’s basement and play computer games all day, there is really no reason to do it. That’s why I hate the certification route. Trying to get into the IT world with as little effort as possible is bad mojo. I’ve known too many people driven to bad ends because they got into the IT world for the money and hated it.
One think we do at VT is make the incoming CS majors do Linux on their laptops. I think the rationale is this: If you can’t install and use Linux, you have no business as a CS major.
“We’re not going to throw our sons and daughters into a pit of filth after spending so many years instructing them in the ways of the Lord. “
Just to let you know. I work at a large university. Some of the mostly Godly people I know are college professors. One of our local evangelical churches uses professors as clergy. The problem is that many of the kids don’t know how to act properly. That is true of college, the military, the working world, everywhere.
We home schooled our four children into HS. Oldest son is now a programmer and owns his own business so he can afford to be a youth pastor.
What will my son have from four years of college that your son won't have, besides student loans?
A network of buddies that can get him past the first line of interviews into lots of jobs. Local folks that he can call when he encounters something strange for the first time.
Does your son at 15 know how to build a webpage? (And I don't mean MySpace)
Can he install Windows onto a new box?
Can he take a Vista machine and turn it to Linux, and then back to Vista?
Does he like hardware or software? Probably as good a starting point as any.
Can he stay organized while he upgrades several computers at once, including tracking all expenses?
Have him join the IT dept at your church as a volunteer. Have him volunteer at the local library. Find a position at a local nursing home and help out all the old folks that need help emailing their “good-for-nothing” kids that never come to visit ... for that matter, have him help out all the folks in your family who get a virus or spyware attack.
IT is NOT about hiding in a cube, its about interacting with people to solve their problems.
My value comes from being able to explain to anyone (literally) how to accomplish their daily tasks on a computer. From doctors to ditch diggers, from Mac to Vista to Linux to DOS. What value will your son bring to those that are willing to pay for help? Because if they are not willing to pay for his help, then he is truly a volunteer.
I hate it too. Degrees don’t make people wise or smart. They only prove you can make a plan and see it through.
I run a small IT company and use the same rule. The minimum used to be high school but now is college.
If going to a liberal school is your big concern, then have him attend Bob Jones University, Pensacola University, Tennessee Temple, Hillsdale, or even BYU. Any of these will provide him a college education grounded in Christian principles and a marketable degree.
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