Thursday, April 16, 2009

Quotes On School

Do universities require professors to have had some training in how to teach? If not, I think they should.

From "How to Create Terrible Professors" http://www.popecenter.org/commentaries/article.html?id=2099

Many graduate students start to teach without knowing a thing about how to do it. I was one of them.

I had my own fair share of bad professors. And after spending several years as a graduate student, I know why. There are very few standards for teaching future professors how to teach—and little pressure to meet any standards at all.


From "ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL 101" http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/architecture-school-101/
A school is—before all else—a faculty.

Students are the other half of any school’s story.

Without good students, a good school cannot exist. However, it is much easier to find good students than good faculty. It is far easier to find great students than great faculty. As Raimund Abraham once said, “There are no bad students.” What he meant was that young people who aspire to become architects and have gone through an admissions and selection process have demonstrated in advance a potential that should be respected. If students try and yet do not do really good work, it is, with few exceptions, due to the failure of their teachers. In contrast, many architects who become and remain teachers do so for reasons other than their potential as teachers. There are many—competent professionals—who should never be allowed any contact with young, eager students bristling with talent and ambition. Bad teachers, especially those who imagine themselves as good, do irreparable damage. They kill the spirit.

This does not mean that outstanding architects cannot emerge from mediocre schools—they can, and some have. But their being outstanding is more the result of their own drive to learn and develop, in spite of the mediocrity around them in school. They are, in effect, self-taught. However, even the most self-determined students need some help along the way: the encounter with a rare teacher who stirs their imaginations, ignites their passions about an idea, or sets an example by the teacher’s own knowledge, integrity, and dedication. These are the qualities that describe the entire faculties of great schools.

Yes, there are three halves. The third is a school’s administration, its dean and department chairs…