<HTML><BODY><DIV style='font-family: "Verdana"; font-size: 10pt;'><DIV>>"Critique is can be productive and is very necessary. I am all in favor<BR>>of an awareness of the weakness that institutions carry in their bones.<BR>>If you read some of my recent rants it should be abundantly clear that<BR>I<BR>>do think that there is a crisis. What I caution against is an *all-out<BR>>rejection.*"<BR>> <BR>>There cannot be a complete rejection or we loose the possibility and it<BR>won't happen anyway. I think <BR>>for universities and museums to be inspiring and to shape learning<BR>experiences they must provide <BR>>experiences not rehashing of old material once "known" and now just<BR>accepted and reguretated. No, <BR>>this won't do and unfortunately except for Ivy league schools this<BR>seems to be the norm. <BR>> <BR>>Teaching is again becoming a profession rather than something one<BR>does on the side or as a supplement to professional practice. Unfortunatly most education is pointed to vocational needs and technical training espcially at the masters level. Higher education is badly in need of critical rethinking with consideration of what can be imparted and end goals. You can criticize me on the last part. </DIV>
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<DIV>Being inside a university today or a museum requires real contemplation about what the students/audience have access to there and the <BR>>resources they meet that with (time, receptivity, money, etc.). <BR>> <BR>>The university I teach in is not as progressive as the profile it wishes and did once-at that time it was an example of an experiment in education with the brilliant distinguishing it. <BR>>Presenting opportunities for true learning is radical so it seems. </DIV>
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<DIV>Responding to <BR>>the collective needs of the university to keep itself financially<BR>stable and to the idealist mission of creating dynamic learning <BR>>experiences are not mutually exclusive ends. However, that said I find<BR>the higher up the ladder many go in the corporate university system, the less likely they are to<BR>adhere and to integrate their great knowing into the position they have attained. <BR><BR>>The sad part is as Trevor points out the best resources, equipment, etc<BR>are inside the university and are <BR>>in many cases not comparable to anything outside of that, in muscular<BR>thinking as well as technology. <BR>> <BR>>Kathryn Simon<BR></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>