Comments on: A farewell to academia

By: Chris Lott

Chris Lott — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:13:49 +0000

I agree with much of what the embittered professor writes. As long as it’s clear that it’s not about all students (and certainly not their fault, most of the time, even when it is true) nor does nurturing and engaging students (scare quotes not needed) have to come at the expense of teaching. There’s a discernible lack of educational quality and understanding of the modern environment on the part of educators too…

By: Mihaela (Dr. V)

Mihaela (Dr. V) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:29:48 +0000

Alex, very insightful analysis of some of the things that are wrong with academia… and your 4 ideas to fix things are right-on.
I have to disagree though that the main problem with academia is the students. Students are the product of a broken educational system. They haven’t failed us, we have failed them – and maybe not we college professors, but their school and high-school teachers. By the time they reach college, they often don’t have the fundamental skills (such as correct grammar) we can build on.

That being said, I’ve been lucky to work with very good students at Clemson University. They have the basics right. They’re even quite motivated to learn. But many of us college professors have a special talent for killing the fun and with it, their engagement and motivation. I’ve begun to see my job as not that of transmitting information, but that of motivating. Once students are motivated, they learn on their own, and they’re having fun.

Yes, the academic system is broken in many fundamental ways, but there are micro-strategies we can use to navigate around the flaws of the system. Blaming it all on students, though, doesn’t seem fair at all to me.

By: andrew

andrew — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:23:44 +0000

I think you missed a crucial point in an otherwise thoughtful post: if you want students to learn, you need professors who know how to teach. Not requiring professors to go through any teacher training program is the biggest joke of higher education. The professor who, by nature of having earned a PHD or such degree, is inherently adept at teaching students in interesting and meaningful ways is the needle in the hay stack. Hiring professors for their publications gives you professors who are good at research and publication, not at teaching. Until teaching is taken seriously as a profession there will be little to no improvement in the quality of education at any level.