Jeff,
I have to say I disagree with you on many aspects of this article, but first, I do agree that there is no substitute for experience. However:
Trying and failing does no good if you don’t know what you’re doing in the first place. In a scholastic environment, you can get the help you need to figure out what’s going on so your failures can be corrected and you can show what you know. In a profession environment, this scenario would result in you finding a new job.
There has to be a foundation for any job. You don’t become CEO of a bank without knowing business math, and you don’t become a programmer without knowing software principles such as memory usage, syntax, and the like. If you just jump right into the industry with no prior knowledge, odds are (as I have seen) your code is going to be very inefficient, ugly, and buggy.
“the work you’re doing is far more relevant than any classes you’re taking” - wrong. Most of my classes at my school took the principles of computers and built on them to make me able to use any programming language I want. From learning about basic data structures to sorting algorithms to compilers, I gained a total understanding of how software works, and with that foundation, I can currently use C, C++, C#, and Delphi to write any application I want, and any other language I want to pick up I can do so in about a week as compared to months for someone who’s never had any formal training. Training is vital to being able to work.
“seek out internships like your life depends on it” - probably the best piece of advice for students out there. However, schools offer something that you can’t get anywhere else: a pre-existing network that you’re automatically in. In the workplace, you have to build a network of contacts, friends, and supervisors so that if something happens, you can find another job fairly easily. Typically, that network is quite small for a long time. However, through schools, that network is built through the instructors, your peers, and the support faculty (secretaries, career services, etc). It’s already in place and ready to direct you to a great job if you have the skills and knowledge.
I won’t go into the rest of it, but will close by saying Experience is great, but lack of skills will get you nowhere. It’s 100 times harder to get those skills with experience only, and a good school will set you up for great sucess.