Saturday, June 21, 2008

Academic Fallacies (3)

· Many professors who are very good teachers, their work is very satisfactory, will often be let go (not renew contract) if they don't show interest in research. Mediocre teachers will be hired just because they are interested in research. Or many professors put a lot of time in teaching the students and don't have enough time to produce high level of research quantity and quality required for being hired permanently and will be fired, too. So if a teacher cares about his pension he would neglect the students. (????) That is because outstanding teaching is very time consuming in terms of creating high-quality courses and preparing outstanding lectures, giving individual attention to students who may have trouble understanding and there is not much time to do the amount and quality of work and research required to get tenure at a top university.

THE STUDENTS

· Students will not necessarily get a better education at the more prestigious institutions with higher paid faculty.

· Higher percentage of small liberal arts college students than students from prestigious research universities are going to receive Ph.Ds

· The institutions with the highest percentage of their undergraduates going on to receive Ph.Ds are small colleges, with less than 2000 undergraduate each. (Cal Tech, Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, Reed) Grinnell College has a higher percentage of its graduates go on to receive Ph. Ds than does either Harvard or Yale.

· At Stanford was a federal investigation that the president used $17,500 from government given money for school for his wedding, and another $2,000a month that he used for flowers at his home. Those $$ are covered in high tuition for the students.

· A science professor at University of Michigan said: "Every minute I spend in an undergraduate classroom is costing me money and prestige" and this means that these students may be attracted by big-name institutions but the prestigious professors are unlikely to teach them, until they reach graduate school.


Now, my question is: what do we do? Is it worth to go to an Ivy League college? Just send them kids there for a diploma but don't expect to come back with an education? What would you do?


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cristina,
o alta prietena care face Classical Ed. mi-a recomandat "Tapestry of Grace". Nu stiam ca este in linie cu Educatia clasica si dupa ce am facut research m-am indragostit. ha
O sa incep Year 2 cu Connor pentru ca am terminat Ancients. Abia astept. :)
Stiam ca folosesti si ca iti place TOG, asa ca vroiam sa iti zic. :)

Cristina

Cristina M. said...

Super! Si eu m-am indragostit cind am citit despre programul asta. Noi chiar am terminat anul 2. Daca nu vrei sa-l cumperi nou al meu e de vinzare.

Anonymous said...

wow, sigur sunt interesata. :) Le ai cumparat year by year sau tot programul de 4 ani?

Cristina

Cristina M. said...

Cred ca sti ca fiecare an e impartit pe 4 niveluri academice. Daca cumperi toti 4 ani, dupa prima rotatie o incepi de la capat, dar pe un nivel mai ridicat. Eu am cumparat prima data doar anul 1 ca nu am stiut cum se potriveste pentru noi, dar imi place din ce in ce mai mult. Deja am comandat anul 3. Daca vrei sa sti mai mult, pot sa-ti scriu pe privat.

Anonymous said...

Din ce m-am uitat pe TOG on line cred ca pot sa incep anul doi comfortabil pentru ca am terminat Ancients. :) Foarte interesata daca ai de vanzare anul 2. :) Singurul loc l-am gasit pe ebay si era classic, adica cel vechi. Nu cred ca este mare diferenta intre cel readaptat si cel clasic. Prietena mea l-a cumparat tot la mana a doua si il foloseste cu succes. Poti sa imi dai un email sau un tel. daca e mai usor. Esti acasa maine dimineata? Copii se duc la VBS pana la pranz si am timp de taclale la telefon. :)