What would you like to know about this Brad? My work is exactly as you say you admire. The kind of teaching I do is paid for by the student and it is much more expensive then the classroom work where the student doesn't come close to making costs with their "tuitions." In my work, costs must be paid for and enough profit must be made to allow the teacher to live. When people pay as much per hour as my fee they give up their mind games and the only rule is that they sing well enough to win the part in the audition. (upper 2%) Any teacher who can't prepare and do the work, does not work and any student unwilling to give up their cognitive dissonance is either rich and can afford to waste time and money or is soon poor because they are just indulging their resistance. I have great respect for many of my colleagues because, at the least, they have proven themselves to be in the upper 2% if they have earned a living in the arts. If instead, they have just spent their time getting degrees and indulging the academic, they don't make much money out here and are soon gone back to the cloisters and to the kids who are too young for artistry. These places are largely holding pens for testosterone laden adolescents who must get past their hormones before they can truly discover the intricate world of the artist. Most students go to college much too young to benefit except to keep the boys and girls from becoming parents too soon. The structure helps them immensely but only time will bring the maturity to use the knowledge imaginatively in a practical situation. Outside in business, after graduation, it takes a long time for them to break into the creative and if they haven't gotten the skills then it is almost impossible. So I'm for college although I think that those who work a little first and experience the variety of the world, are more motivated. Like the people coming out of the military for example. I would make another point about both college teachers and students. They have a bovine quality. They graze incessantly on other people's intellectual capital as if it was not theft. You have to always be very careful around certain types, they have no sense of another person's territory. You tell them something and it is likely to end up in their publications so we tend not to say much unless we are just feeling generous. I once found a paper that I had written in an academic's book that was not connected to me but to a professor who I had written the paper for. I learned to be careful.
The internet has done away with a lot of that because I feel the need to sell my product to a world that has largely forgotten its value, but as a private educator I still don't like people with salaries treating me as a natural resource. There's nothing natural about it. It was all developed by me at great sacrifice. This feeling is not unique to me and may very well be the root of the hostility of your architect to his old classroom teachers. I don't however believe it is an issue of either/or or right/wrong. I think it is more apples and oranges and people with differing types of personalities choose the kind of work that they enjoy and gives them reward and fulfillment. Theft and Plagiarism are always issues of integrity no matter where they are found. And students are students until they become "Masters." Its not a degree but a competence. Advanced degrees are just degrees. REH ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Stephen Straker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 6:09 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] And now for something completely different: A recently deceased emperor's new clothes > These two responses to my posting indicate why I believe > it is of overriding importance that the student > have enough money (or at least the ability to > acquire it in a way that is not offensive to him or her...), > so that, if the student does not like the way he or she > is being treated by the teacher, he or she can > do what America always said was good about the Eastern > Europeans, and: > > vote with his or her feet. > > Of course teachers are entitled to their opinions. But > those opinions should not be able to do damage to > other persons (at least to other persons who do not > have equal power to do damage back to them, e.g., > their fellow professors). > > Never again. (Yes, I know, that's not going to happen, > but, as they say in Philosophy 101: > Is does not imply ought.) > > In the real world, probably the best would be for students > to unionize, and collectively bargain with the > universities, and, until the teachers learned > how to treat the students are fully human persons > rather than as objects of their asymmetricdal > judgment, the students should look on and see > how they make theirr salaries without their > tuition (Meanwhile, in the University President's > Office: "Ted, you did good by us by locking us > into military and industrial research -- I > have to admit it, I didn't see what was > coming, but you did. Even > if the students strike forever, we'll make > our budget from our corporate and government > contracts." "Thank you, sir.") > > I can honestly say that I did not expect > these responses to my posting. I appreciate your > honesty. You have given me material to > take seriously. > > \brad mccormick > > > > Ray Evans Harrell wrote: > > Amen from the heathen corner over here. > > > > REH > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Stephen Straker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Cc: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 12:33 PM > > Subject: Re: [Futurework] And now for something completely different: A > > recently deceased emperor's new clothes > > > > > > > >>Brad: > >> > >>>I had a sort of similar instance. I had a philosophy > >>>teacher who thought I was "puerile". On one assignment -- > >>>the only time I ever tried such a think in > >>>my whole schooling --, I wrote a paper which > >>>I did not believe in at all, but which I thought > >>>the teacher would like. The grad asst gave me a 96. > >>>The teacher, Sterling Professor of Philosophy Paul Weiss, > >>>scratched out the 96 and replaced it with a 97. > >>> > >>>No, I think what was going on with Alexander is that > >>>the teacher didn't have a clue as to what anything > >>>meant, but he as adept at playing the game that had > >>>got him his Professorship. So he could not tell > >>>a serious spoof (not some fraternity prank!) from > >>>something real. To borrow LeCorbusier's words, > >>>he had eyes but saw not and ears but did not hear. > >> > >>As one who has carefully evaluated a gazillion undergraduate > >>essays, I ask: > >> > >>Why do you suppose a paper can't be any good unless you > >>"believe in it"? > >> > >>It seems to me more likely that the stuff you really > >>believed in at the time WAS puerile, whereas the paper you > >>thought Paul Weiss would like was judged to be very good > >>because Weiss (and his grad student) had a good idea of what > >>decent philosophical writing looked like ... As did you, > >>obviously, except you didn't believe in it. > >> > >>This seems a more likely account of what happened than your > >>account which requires the grad student to be a chump and > >>Paul Weiss a lazy pandering jerk. > >> > >>Stephen Straker > >>Vancouver, B.C. > >> > >> > >>_______________________________________________ > >>Futurework mailing list > >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >>http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > > > > > > > -- > Let your light so shine before men, > that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) > > Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) > > <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/ > > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
