Started School

I've started my first semester at U of H. It is nice being at an actual university for once. They have a very nice library with a substantial collection of CompSci material, which I am quite enjoying. I've picked up this book on "First Order Logic and Automated Theorem Proving", which is right up my alley. And you know, I've found that as I've gotten older and become more experienced with math, it's all totally understandable. Maybe it was experimenting with functional languages, especially Haskell which is very math-esque, but my ability to understand mathematical statements (algorithms and proofs in particular) has expanded noticably. Part of this is simply development. Up to a point (say your mid thirties) you do get more mentally competent. That's not to say I'm going to make very many personal breakthroughs in the upcoming 15 years, but I can at least count on getting better at things I practice at. After 35, of course, it's all downhill, so I'd better be good enough to go into something soft like management, else face the addlement of age in a technically demanding profession; which I can tell you is not ideal, having observed many over-ripe male college professors who are no longer capable of professing their profession!
Which brings me to a critique of my current classes. I'm only taking one course in CompSci, and that is Computer Architecture; and unfortunately it is yet another class taught by an old man whose many years of long life and toil have leeched away all enthusiasm from his head. His brain-cells cry out for sleep, and I would indulge them.
Thank goodness I don't require teachers to learn, because otherwise I'd be screwed at the prestigious University of Houston. I can tell why so many CompSci graduates have no idea about anything when they get out of school. If you don't have the ability and motivation to educate yourself, you're at the mercy of whatever institution you're at; and in my case, that would mean a mediocre education at best.
I watched a documentary recently about the declining standards of American colleges, i.e. grade inflation and drunken fratboys scating through their degrees. I don't know if it's really all that bad; but I can assert that any highschool teacher who uses the excuse when professing to her students "Learn this cause you'll need it in college" -- she is likely mistaken.
My calculus and PoliSci classes are really big, but they're both taught by experienced and competent teachers, so it's ok. My writing class is taught by a psychotic woman (who is fun, but crazy). My discussion class is taught by a middle-aged football player who has a sarcastic wit and no seriousness. What other class am I taking.... I can't remember. Anyway, I get to spend lots of time reading cool books in the library. I wish HCC had had a better compsci collection. It's a real constrast from U of H, and I bet someplace like Rice or another top university would have an even more impressive (and enviable) collection.