Have been following these teaching threads and thought I would put in my
12 cents. With inflation this should be about right.
As far as what should be taught and what shouldn't, I don't think you can
draw a line here. If you are looking for relevance there isn't a whole
lot that we need to know about plants (or a lot of things for that
matter) to survive.
Most of us teach what we were taught and in many cases how we were
taught. (with modification) I'm not saying this is bad or good but for
the ungifted older person like myself its hard to change. Part of the
problem as I see it is that when you look at speciality areas college
profs. do not teach with the intent that their students should teach the
same stuff in the future. Most teach what they know and have studied all
their lives and try to give an interested student as much current info.
is possible. This I think goes back to the time when college was for
those well to do who had a desire to learn what there was to learn about
the world and a specific area. In those days you could actually learn
almost everything that was known. I think this why they call us Doctors
of Philosophy - knowing everything about everything and all. Besides,
they didn't have cars, TV, electricity, and other distractions.
Seems like College today is becoming more and more like high school and
everybody thinks they should have a degree. The community thinks so too.
I won't go into what the Colleges think. Sorry for the ramblings but
I'm off this summer.
D. Haas
