50[Jet小组]第四次作业

ellefrancaiUID: 2449693

TOPIC: ISSUE50 - "In order to improve the quality of instruction at the college and university level, all faculty should be required to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach."
WORDS: 461          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2008-2-10 13:52:14

As a matter of fact, the point of view presented above is becoming a general concept nowadays that faculty should be required to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the courses they teach as to improve their quality of instruction. But when it comes to 'all faculty', the problem changed and I can hardly approve it.

Education itself is quite different from any other fields that it is somewhat isolated with other things in the society. People regard campus as a kind of paradise for the isolation from the society, which keeps it clean and pure. Also, there is a famous ancient saying in China and I paraphrased that students should concentrate on study and care little about the outside world.  Moreover, in the Academy built by Plato, student there learn and discuss with each other and all of them worked hard on philosophy while none of them care for the jobs.

However, things changed today that academic world cannot stay away from the real world and departments of universities and colleges which related to practical knowledge or even skills become the first choice of most students when choosing their majors. In my University, the hot major is economy, managing science, journalism etc., which are all practical ones. Students choose these major for a 'bright future', which means they will have good jobs and make big money according to them. It is hard to image that the professor of these departments have never had any jobs in certain fields and even less that they can provide qualified instructions.

Furthermore, despite those practical departments, we can see little need to require the faculty of departments such as mathematics, physics, philosophy etc.  to spend time working outside the academic world. Since time is limited, not only the faculty but also the students who want to gain academic fruits in these fields should make full use of their time working on the academic world. Stephen Hawking spent almost all his time on the theory he present and make the branch of academy move on for a big step. Just like the saying, 'no pain, no gain'. In these fields, to spend time working outside the academic world will be nothing but harm to the academic work.

In sum, the view presented is one-sided and to take a further consideration, we should divide this problem apart into two situations. What I mean is, whether the faculty should have professions relevant to the courses they teach depends on the courses exactly they teach. That means that those teach the courses related to practical sciences should be required to have experiences on work. Otherwise, the faculty who teach the courses related to theories should spend all the time working in the academic world.