Law in Contemporary Society

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OurBrokenSystemofEducation 6 - 09 Mar 2009 - Main.WalkerNewell
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 I was struck by the part of Professor Moglen's lecture yesterday on our education system, and I wish to address some particularly troublesome thoughts that I've had regarding our higher education system (university level and beyond).

Prof. Moglen said that in general, professors don't care about their students very much. Instead of learning about their students, they would rather sit around in a faculty lunch and discuss how intelligent they are. While as an undergraduate, I had sinking suspicions of this sentiment, it was only until I worked as a graduate student TA that I realized the pervasiveness of this truth. I pursued a PhD? in engineering in part because of my love for teaching, and I was shocked to realize how few professors truly care about it. As a TA, I have worked for professors who rehash each year's lecture on dull powerpoint presentations despite repeated critical evaluations of their ineffectiveness, delegating almost all aspects of evaluation (including all test writing, grading, and office hours) to me and almost all aspects of actual learning to the student himself. In fact, while conversing with fellow graduate students, I have heard of certain professors openly declaring that they cared nothing about their undergraduates, that they were a pain in the ass, and that they would rather do research. And this was at a university which was consistently ranked in the top 5 in the nation and liked to boast of the success of their graduates in that particular field.

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 Michael - I agree that, if you want to have the best chance at a successful career in corporate law, the prestige of Columbia in placing its graduates in that field will be relevant.
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However, you fail to address the central point of Alex's post - that the culture at universities which emphasizes prestige ends up devaluing actual teaching, resulting in disinterested professors whose job security is based on the success of their research, not their interaction with their students. I do believe that Alex has a legitimate reason for "depression" . This is, as he stated, a uniform practice across higher education, and regardless of which elite law school one chooses, you are going to be getting a similar experience.
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However, you fail to address the central point of Alex's post - that the culture at universities which emphasizes prestige ends up devaluing actual teaching, resulting in disinterested professors whose job security is based on the success of their research, not their interaction with their students. I do believe that Alex has a legitimate reason for "depression" . This is, as he stated, a uniform practice across higher education, and regardless of which elite law school one chooses, you are going to get a similar experience.
 There are two separate issues here. One is that higher education is driven by prestige, and that the reputation of a degree can have a substantial bearing on a student's career prospects. The other is that "universities hire the people who bring in money", many of whom aren't particularly interested in the teaching aspect of their job. I don't think we have to complacently accept this state of affairs simply because we can read reviews about different schools.

Revision 6r6 - 09 Mar 2009 - 16:02:00 - WalkerNewell
Revision 5r5 - 09 Mar 2009 - 03:09:45 - WalkerNewell
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