Recently there is a heated debate about whether all school faculty should be require to work outside academic relevant with the course they teach. I personally don’t believe this practice should be imposed on all teachers. First, teachers in some professions, including math, physics shouldn’t be disturbed. They need to concentrate on their work in order to make some discoveries. Second, teachers in universities have a tight schedule to teach and to do research. It is hard to let them put more work in their time table.
It is obvious that some subjects, like math, physics and many other fundamental subjects are not relevant with any specific jobs. So taking up a job will mean a waste of time for them since they really need large amount of time to sit at the table and think quietly, without any inference. It would be unrealistic to impose them to work despite they really need to think alone.
Second, nowadays teachers in universities always have a tight schedule. Besides doing research, they also need to teach students. That makes it hardly possible for them to put more work in their schedule. If a university or college makes it compulsory that every teachers should work besides teaching, the teaching standard may fall. Thus the university may fail to give a student the education they need to success in their future career.
Someone may argue that teachers need to have the work experience in order to keep pace with the outside world. Considering the fast changing speed of technology, this point sounds like a valid one. But let’s not forget the great thing is changing our every day life — the Internet. Using the Internet, the teachers can quickly know what’s happening outside the campus. So they don’t need to work outside academic world.
Because teachers working on math, physics should focus on theory and university teachers usually have a tight schedule. Also, they can use the Internet to know the changes outside campus. So I don’t think it would be necessary for universities or colleges to impose all its faculty to work in professions relevant to course.