Of course, Louis, few of us are in your league - you remind us of
that periodically. And I must admit, I don't love my students.
Nor was I talking about moving information from my head into theirs,
but you have this habit of assuming the worst of your colleagues.
Whatever, I don't mean to personalize this.
Good teachers are not just born, which is what most of the responses
seemed to indicate: the personality of the teacher is the prime
variable determining quality. Is the personality of the doctor or
lawyer or industry chemist the prime variable determining how good
they are at their jobs? Is our job really that much different? I
doubt it. And since good teachers are made, the environment they
teach in plays a big role in that creation.
Perhaps my own experiences have biased my view: I work at an open
admissions school that seems pretty hard up for every tuition check
it can get. The result is that there is a fair amount of emphasis
coming from the administration on factors that could reduce student
complaints. It is a rather mad-brained McDonaldization and the
desired product is not something that might be outstanding, which is
risky, but something palatable for the mass market, something that
puts the control (of student satisfaction) in the hands of
administrators, marketers, lawyers, etc.
--> Mike O.
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Michael S. Ofsowitz
University of Maryland - European Division
http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~mofsowit
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