| Popis: |
In the fall of 1994, in my hometown paper, there was an item about my uni versity's hunt for a new president. The article carried the banner headline "CU President Must Back Research." The piece quoted an assistant profes sor of linguistics, who said: "I think it's a mistake to separate research from teaching. You can't have good teaching without good research in a univer sity like this." That opinion from a member of our fold recognizes a relation between teaching and research but, like the article, seems to give priority to the r-word. The spring before that, while visiting a reputable western state university, I heard the dean of the school of social sciences say some thing similar but apparently more balanced. Teaching and research, he said, are complementary rather than contradictory activities. That synergistic combination, he continued, is a critical feature at major institutions. To be an excellent teacher you must be able to transmit the excitement of discov ery to your students, and to be an excellent researcher you need the teach ing experience to enrich your academic life. It is difficult to disagree with that neat formula, for it reflects the standard view, the justification for an entrenched system, our justification for what we do and administrators' justifications for rewarding us or getting rid of us. It is, moreover, a for mula that we have of late been called on to defend with vigor and in dis comfort against assaults from a society ever more hostile to the established ways of the academy. |
