9/23/2009
You can't have teaching without research
Margaret Wente wrote
a rather trite and ill-informed column last weak accusing faculty of shirking teaching in favour of research, and suggesting that universities are somehow run "to benefit professors".
I would like to visit Ms. Wente's wondrous dreamland, because it sounds lovely. Reality, unfortunately, is a whole different story.
What Ms. Wente blames on professors and their representative associations - poor student engagement, huge classes - are the result of years of under-funding at out postsecondary institutions. Starved of resources, universities cannot
hire the necessary number of professors upon which small classes and collaborative learning depend. Ontario now has the worst student-to-faculty ratio in Canada. Faced with monstrous lecture halls, profs are simply unable to engage meaningfully with their students. Only one thing will help improve this situation - more government funding.
"To teach is to communicate enthusiasm for learning, and what sustains that enthusiasm is continuing to learn yourself. It's also to set an example of progress to nourish in your students the hope that they too can contribute to progress. No, not all research done at universities is valuable. The surprise is how much of it is. And yes, there is always room for another study of Plato or Tolstoy, for great works are both inexhaustible and must be presented anew to every generation. You can't rest on the laurels of the past, for anything worth learning requires to be constantly relearned."
Well put. If Ms. Wente had bothered to investigate the issue, she would realize that teaching and research are inextricably linked. If you want quality teaching, you need excellent research. And for both, you need the right number of faculty.