This is one of the reasons I love xkcd: occasionally Randall Munroe's thoughts and mine coincide. You could substitute any programming language you like for Perl in this graph, and it would still be true.If only mainstream state education could find some way of catering to the brighter students for free. In fact, why doesn't the government pump more cash into state education for equipment, books, computers, vehicles (to ferry students to and from off-site activities) and staff? Probably the same reason that higher education is so damn expensive and painted as a fool's errand for all but the most toffee-nosed of children. Besides, where would the next generation of cannon fodder come from?
