I noticed on the calendar today that this week there are early interviews for students planning to apply to Teach for America this year. Teach for America was a popular choice for graduates from many universities even before the jobs situation deteriorated so dramatically, and it continues to attract some of our most thoughtful and engaged students. Liberal arts colleges have contributed more than their fair share of teachers to schools at all levels. Bard College has been especially innovative in this area, most notably with Simon's Rock and Bard High School Early College (BHSEC). The Scripps College Academy offers a free year-round college-readiness program for high-achieving young women in the greater Los Angeles area who may lack the resources necessary to prepare for success in top colleges and universities. Wesleyan's Graduate Liberal Studies program has provided hundreds of teachers in central Connecticut with advanced degrees. There are dozens of programs around the country sponsored by selective colleges eager to help students and teachers acquire the tools necessary for getting the most out of higher education. We certainly need new ideas for improving our schools -- as well as a better understanding of how our education system now reproduces inequality rather than offering an escape from it. Liberal arts colleges can help in these areas by connecting their on-campus educational mission of enhancing life-long learning to the practical challenges faced by public schools in their towns or regions.
Recently, a spate of commentators have complained about university professors merely chasing specialized awards and not spending enough of their time and energy on undergraduates. Although there is certainly some truth to this at universities with large graduate programs, this picture of the professor protected from teaching neglects the thousands of college teachers who spend countless hours advising, grading, and mentoring in addition to preparing lectures and leading seminars. I'm thinking of the art history department at Williams College, famous not only for providing its students with a great classroom experience, but also for helping graduates over decades to develop rewarding careers as leaders at museums from Massachusetts to California. And I'm thinking of a Wesleyan film prof of whom screenwriter Joss Whedon said, "I've had two great teachers in my life -- one was my mother, the other was Jeanine Basinger." Not every prof gets to see things like that in print, but we all take pride in them.
I'd like to think that one of the core reasons so many students in the liberal arts go on to careers in education is that they are inspired by the energy and dedication of their teachers. Whether they are studying computational biology or ethnomusicology, postmodern Christian thought or microeconomics, our students are enlivened by the work of their professors. And as their teachers, we are enlivened by the creativity, inquisitiveness and intellectual verve of our students. Of course, most of our students don't go on to become teachers, but I do think they go on to find a way to put into practice the lessons learned on campus: to help those around them to develop their talents and to expand their horizons.
Although as a university president I spent much of my time in meetings, my colleagues tell me that I'm happiest just after I come back from the classroom. There is nothing quite like having to respond to the skeptical questions of bright undergraduates. Now as our fall term comes to an end, I'm already beginning to wonder who will be in my spring course...
Emerson wrote that colleges "serve us when they aim not to drill, but to create; when they gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and by the concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame." That's why we teach. To see those fires and to feel their warmth.
Alant--you right on de money. Or not, to be precise.
Our college turned out a lot of teachers. But the best students chose other careers, surely for the money or the challenge, or both. Perhaps that's what is wrong, in part, with our secondary education system today: the better college students, the truly serious ones, are not going into teaching, at least not in large numbers.
So, President Roth, before foisting such out-of-touch platitudes about the lofty values of teaching, perhaps you should take a leave from your presidency and gain some experience at non-elite institutions (not those you mention in your post, all of which are elite) where the vast majority of today's teachers are trained (not educated).
Wonderful times!
Presidents matter!
one dept chair I worked for created his own journal so he and his friends could get published. peer review is a joke. ie like attract like. anyone that presents a paper not in alignment with the existing journal's paradigm is rejected outright. ie science has become scientism.
anyone that understands teaching knows that pay is not the biggest issue with a teacher.
in one dept I taught at one professor got 300 dollars more than the other professors. that created a hostile work environment the rest of the year. 300 dollars??????? and the dept chair walked away thinking what a great leader he was. absolute ignorance. where did he learn such ignorance?
then the dean at one major university would come over and say this is what your dept is going to do. no dialog no discussion just do it or else no funding for your dept.
the same thing wrong on wall street and at our banks and our gov is the same thing wrong at our universities.
The shift in "management mentality" at universities is not peculiar to these institutions.
We have become a society in love with artificial "feel good" (but empty) artificial goals.
One example:
The Martial Arts [paralleled] improvement programs. It's one thing to achieve the goals of the job, quite another to entertain the management by having to leverage a position by wearing pre-teen brownie badges (e.g. belts) in order to be recognized for the next annual review.
In many cases I've seen these initiatives used in place of actual upgrades or additional training (being the cheap and inefficient way of improvements to the organization).
"VOODOO ACADEMICS: Brandeis University’s hard lesson in the real economy"
by Christopher R. Beha
http://www.endowmentethics.org/downloads/Harpers_Magazine_Brandeis_Article.pdf