Tom, I couldn't agree more about adjuncts. The interesting thing that's
happening, though, is that the students are protesting. They recognize
that adjuncts are not going to give them the care they need. Since there's
a glut of students right now, and a shortage of schools, there will be
adjuncts for some time to come, but I don't think it will be sustainable,
except in diploma mills. I have been an adjunct myself for 12 years, at
New York University, and while I love doing it, it can be wearing.
(I've never met Neil Postman, but we have shared a lot of students and
acquaintances, since he also teaches at a media program at NYU.)
Have you seen my piece on the Fieldbook website about the purpose of
organizations? It occurs to me that it's right on target with what you're
saying. It's at http://www.fieldbook.com -- then click on "ghost stories"
and look for the newest one.
But I think that universities have a third purpose -- the purpose that
Pirsig wrote about as "the church of reason." I still ascribe to that
belief, naively utopian though it may be.
A.
At 5:14 PM -0400 10/25/99, tabeles wrote:
>a very thoughtful and perceptive response. yes, I must agree that there are
>many who are striving to make changes in their institutions, at all levels
>from K-16 and beyond. I think that K-12, currently, provides an exciting arena
>for developing new ideas at the organizational level.
>
>Where there are unresolved issues is at the post secondary or 13->16
>institutions and some of this will spill backwards. The first issue is the
>focus of the Colloquy in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education which
>debates the issue of whether a virtual university can ever be certified as
>equivalent to the traditional image of the "halls of ivy". In reality we are
>seeing a host of new "industries" evolving including the extension of K->12 to
>K->16, the reaffirmation of tradition in the medallion institutions and a host
>of new alternatives which are very different from any forms which have
>traditionally existed.
>
>In some ways, with the increased presence of adjuncts, we are seeing The
>Academy return to a model similar to the old coal mines. if an adjunct drops
>on the spot, there are many who will step in to fill the void. We are seeing
>technology such as being pushed by commercial insterests, including the
>traditional institutions which are changing the roll of the academic much like
>modern mining equipment transformed the coal fields and the factories.
>Interestingly we are also seeing the equivalent of new "technologies" such as
>non-credit education, IT programs aimed at cirtification on company specific
>technologies, globalization and even new forms of specialization such as those
>arising from the separation of content and process. And we have the old
>industries, the liberal education institutions.
>
>These are not the type of changes, the Ivan Illiches and the Niel Postmans etc
>who focused on the student and tried to make learning student centered. These
>are structural changes in the arena. Post secondary education hasn't adopted
>the idea of Peppers and Rogers with their 1 to 1 future because they are still
>thinking programs and not individual education. they are still thinking
>certification and requirements (the latter keeps jobs, employs grad students
>and gets your psych subjects ...grin...) and they are doing this while the walls
>are crumbling and the bastion has been breached as sure as Japan was opened up
>when Perry sailed into the harbor.
>
>It is not, IMO, that universities can not find a model. Rather, they have to
>figure out what business they are in and, particularly, what business they are
>not in before they can even consider the organizational issues which make the
>system work.
>
>In most businesses the management knows what business they are in and most
>employees can define what their rolls could, should or might be. In higher
>education, a lot of academics are counting the years before retirement and/or
>figuring out whether tenure will be around and what that might mean as the
>rules change.
>
>It reminds me of some Numchuck wielding ninja making fancy moves while Dirty
>Harry pulls out his magnum and says, "Make my day". What do you do when the
>rules of engagement are changing?
>
>thoughts?
>
>tom abeles
-- Art Kleiner, art@well.com, http://www.well.com/user/art
--Art Kleiner <art@well.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>