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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J. C. Dithers who wrote (51323)	6/18/2002 12:21:50 PM
From: Solon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

"I'm feeling dense this morning. Meaning what?" You had made the assertion: "It is up to the student to realize what a golden opportunity they have been given, and to make the most of it."* This seemed to be placing the entire onus for choosing what is valuable in life upon their inexperienced and untutored psyches. It seemed odd to me that one should be exalting the virtues of teaching, while at the same time undermining that position (that important things may indeed be taught) by dint of a flippancy. Awareness that they have a "golden opportunity" would appear to be (by the characterization) an awareness which could be very advantageous. Your desire to withhold the communication of this awareness from the student seemed incongruous given that it was the type of learning or awareness which you apparently valued yourself. Yet the teacher is to offer no guidance in this regard, if I am to correctly understand your remark in the context of your previous posts. Perhaps you will clarify if I have misunderstood your position. I asure you, I do not wish to misrepresent your words in any way. Have you been asserting over several posts, that teachers ought not to guide, steer, or motivate their charges in ways which assist them in an awareness of the golden opportunities which call to them? But that this awareness of golden opportunities must be left (for some as yet unexplained reason) to the uninfluenced, but indwelling, inclination of the student?

To: J. C. Dithers who wrote (51323)	6/18/2002 1:31:05 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

This is just ... the way it is. Surely you can do better than that. That's NOT the way it SHOULD be. Students deserve excellent teaching. They deserve teaching that deserves respect. Basically, some professors have managed to carve out very comfortable positions for themselves where they do essentially whatever they want to do and get paid quite handsomely, by most standards, for it, and the people who pay the bills for it be damned. You shouldn't, IMO, be just saying that's the way it is. You should be, again IMO, railing against the way the system was developed and demanding that academia return to what it should be. Which is why I went to a college where teaching was the goal, purpose, and focus of the faculty, and research and publication were tolerated, but only if they didn't interfere with the teaching function. That, IMO, is the way it should be.